Professor Woo Lee, Stevens Institute of Technology, wins the Academic R&D Award from Printed Electronics Conference and Tradeshow.
Paper-thin cell phones, e-readers, and batteries are just over the horizon for consumers, thanks to a revolutionary, technology known as printed electronics. A combination of novel materials and cutting edge fabrication processes, printed electronics are revolutionizing the look, feel, and use of computerized devices and are emerging as an estimated $300 billion market. Professor Woo Lee, partners in the Army, and other researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are advancing printed electronics through their recent demonstration of a method to inkjet print electrical energy storage devices using graphene. Made of carbon sheets one atom thick, graphene has quickly become a go-to material for the next-generation of nanoscale and microscale devices.
The printed graphene research conducted by Professor. Lee and his collaborators is destined to fundamentally change how low-cost, electronic consumer goods are produced in the future.
Professor Lee's "ink" is a suspension of graphene oxide in water, which, afterprinting, is thermally reduced to produce graphene. The resulting material has useful characteristics including electrical conductivity, high surface area for energy storage, good mechanical strength to withstand everyday use, and transparent appearance.
Using an inkjet printer that can form and meticulously place graphene oxide droplets with a volume of 10 picoliters (1 x 10e-11 liters), Dr. Lee can realize graphene electrodes for the printed electronics industry.
"Our process allows us to print graphene droplets at a resolution down to around 50 micrometers," reports Professor Lee. "Such precision inkjet-printing techniques require minimal handling of nanomaterials, generate very little wasted material, and can easily scale up by adapting our methods to commercial printers."