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. 2020 Sep 19;10(9):1879.
doi: 10.3390/nano10091879.

Printed and Flexible Microheaters Based on Carbon Nanotubes

Aniello Falco  1 , Francisco J Romero  2 , Florin C Loghin  3 , Alina Lyuleeva  4 , Markus Becherer  3 , Paolo Lugli  1 , Diego P Morales  2 , Noel Rodriguez  2 , Jose F Salmerón  3 , Almudena Rivadeneyra  2
Affiliations

Printed and Flexible Microheaters Based on Carbon Nanotubes

Aniello Falco et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

This work demonstrates a cost-effective manufacturing method of flexible and fully printed microheaters, using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the heating element. Two different structures with different number of CNT layers have been characterized in detail. The benchmarking has been carried out in terms of maximum operating temperature, as well as nominal resistance and input power for different applied voltages. Their performances have been compared with previous reports for similar devices, fabricated with other technologies. The results have shown that the heaters presented can achieve high temperatures in a small area at lower voltages and lower input power. In particular, the fully printed heaters fabricated on a flexible substrate covering an area of 3.2 mm2 and operating at 9.5 V exhibit a maximum temperature point above 70 °C with a power consumption below 200 mW. Therefore, we have demonstrated that this technology paves the way for a cost-effective large-scale fabrication of flexible microheaters aimed to be integrated in flexible sensors.

Keywords: SWCNT; flexible substrate; heater; inkjet printing; printed electronics; silver nanoparticles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Heater schematic. W: fingers’ width, S: separation between both fingers and electrodes, L: length of the fingers. (b) Schematic of the measurement setup.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Characterization of the one-layer device applying a sweep voltage up to 21 V (two cycles): (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time (inset is a thermal image of the heater), and (c) resistance over time.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Characterization, applying voltage of 22 V: (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time, and (c) resistance over time.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Characterization, applying different voltage levels (20 V, 21 V, 22 V, and 25 V): (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time, and (c) resistance over time (the arrow shows the increase in the voltage).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Three steps at different voltage levels. Characterization, applying three steps at different voltages: (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time, and (c) resistance over time. TP stands for Transition point; the arrow indicates when TP has shifted (and the temperature to achieve the TP has increased).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Heater with two printed CNT layers. Characterization, applying voltage up to 18.5 V: (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time, and (c) resistance over time.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Sweeps up to 16 V after transition point. Characterization, applying voltage up to 16 V (after reaching the transition point): (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time, and (c) resistance over time. Insets correspond to the characterization, performed applying two steps at 16 V.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Characterization, applying voltage up to 9.5 V, for consecutive cycles: (a) voltage over time, (b) temperature over time, and (c) resistance over time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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