Graphene-based inks form basis for integrated circuits on fabric

Researchers from the Cambridge Graphene Centre have led a project that has successfully demonstrated printing of fully-integrated electronic circuits directly onto fabric for the first time. The circuits, which contain complex layered semiconductor devices, are printed using inks containing graphene and a similar two-dimensional conductive material, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN).

Previous attempts at printing electronics on fabric are have used inks containing metal oxides or conductive polymers, but these have run into problems because of the limited semiconductor properties of the materials, making it impossible to construct components such as transistors. Although graphene’s potential for printed electronics has been recognised for some time, it has not yet been realised because previous attempts to make such inks have required toxic solvents.

The Cambridge team, working with other researchers in Milan and Wuxi in China, have devised a method to make a graphene: h-BN ink using non-toxic, low-boiling point solvents. This, they claim in a paper in Nature Communications, produces fully-working circuits containing field-effect transistors using conventional inkjet printing techniques. Moreover, the fabric remains breathable and the circuits are stretchable and survive up to 20 machine-wash cycles, they add.