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Water-based and biocompatible 2D crystal inks for all-inkjet-printed heterostructures

Nature Nanotechnology volume 12, pages 343–350 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Exploiting the properties of two-dimensional crystals requires a mass production method able to produce heterostructures of arbitrary complexity on any substrate. Solution processing of graphene allows simple and low-cost techniques such as inkjet printing to be used for device fabrication. However, the available printable formulations are still far from ideal as they are either based on toxic solvents, have low concentration, or require time-consuming and expensive processing. In addition, none is suitable for thin-film heterostructure fabrication due to the re-mixing of different two-dimensional crystals leading to uncontrolled interfaces and poor device performance. Here, we show a general approach to achieve inkjet-printable, water-based, two-dimensional crystal formulations, which also provide optimal film formation for multi-stack fabrication. We show examples of all-inkjet-printed heterostructures, such as large-area arrays of photosensors on plastic and paper and programmable logic memory devices. Finally, in vitro dose-escalation cytotoxicity assays confirm the biocompatibility of the inks, extending their possible use to biomedical applications.

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Figure 1: Range of inkjet-printable inks and their properties.
Figure 2: Fully inkjet-printed heterostructures on Si/SiO2.
Figure 3: Flexible heterostructures fully printed onto plastic and paper.
Figure 4: Logic memory device.
Figure 5: Cytotoxic responses of human lung and keratinocyte cells to two-dimensional ink exposure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Grand Challenge EPSRC grant EP/N010345/1 and the European Science Foundation (ESF) under the EUROCORES Programme EuroGRAPHENE (GOSPEL). F.W. acknowledges support from the Royal Academy of Engineering. D.M.M. acknowledges the EPSRC in the framework of the NoWNano CDT. S.S. acknowledges support by the Army Research Office. S.V. acknowledges the ‘RADDEL’ project (Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) grant no. 290023) under the EU's FP7 PEOPLE programme. K.K., G.I. and G.F. acknowledge financial support from EU FP7-ICT-2013-FET-F Graphene Flagship project (no. 604391) and the Project ‘Graphene Flagship’ Core 1 (contract no. 696656). C.C. and D.M.M. thank K. S. Novoselov, J. Wheeler and A. Valentine Parry for discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

    Daryl McManus, Huafeng Yang, Roberto Sorrentino, Khaled Parvez, Seok-Kyun Son & Cinzia Casiraghi

  2. Nanomedicine Lab, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, AV Hill Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK

    Sandra Vranic & Kostas Kostarelos

  3. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

    Freddie Withers

  4. Manchester Enterprise Centre, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9SS, UK

    Veronica Sanchez-Romaguera

  5. Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Massimo Macucci, Giuseppe Iannaccone & Gianluca Fiori

Authors
  1. Daryl McManus
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Contributions

C.C. conceived and designed the experiments. D.M.M. developed the inks, with initial assistance from V.S.-R., and conducted all experiments. H.Y. and R.S. performed preliminary experiments. K.P. contributed to the electrical measurements data. S.-K.S. contributed to the transfer of CVD graphene. Device characterization was performed by F.W. and D.M.M. G.F. and G.I. conceived the logic memory device with assistance from C.C. The device was fabricated by D.M.M. and measured by M.M. All biological studies were conceived, designed and performed by S.V. and K.K. The manuscript was written by C.C., D.M.M., G.F., S.V. and K.K., in close consultation with all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cinzia Casiraghi.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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McManus, D., Vranic, S., Withers, F. et al. Water-based and biocompatible 2D crystal inks for all-inkjet-printed heterostructures. Nature Nanotech 12, 343–350 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.281

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