2026 Undergraduate Research Showcase

Optimizing Inkjet Printing of Gold Ink for Electrochemistry Applications

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-24-2026

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Carol Baumbauer

Abstract

When creating electrodes for use in electrochemical sensing applications, it is ideal to have a highly replicable and inexpensive fabrication method. Inkjet printing these sensors with conductive nanoparticle inks enables a low waste, inexpensive, precise, and reproducible method of fabrication. However, in order to print smooth and reproducible electrodes, the printing settings must be optimized for the particular printer and ink being used. Here we show the effects of altering different printing settings during the optimization process and the results of such as seen when printing commercial gold nanoparticle ink onto a glass substrate. Our experiments showed that while smaller drop spacings with more layers yielded smoother topography across prints, there was more ink spreading outside of the edges of patterns. We also found a strong correlation between high cartridge temperatures and jet misfiring. Furthermore, we found that increasing the platen temperature increased inconsistencies in printing. Optimizing printing settings for commercial nanoparticle gold ink enables scalable fabrication of research-grade electrochemical sensors.

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