Ethanol-mediated metal transfer printing on organic films

Ethanol-mediated metal transfer printing (mTP) is a soft method, which allows to efficiently deposit metals onto various organic surfaces for applications in organic electronics. This simple approach in based on the stronger adhesion of the metals to the organic materials in the presence of thin ethanol layer between the metallized PDMS and the substrate due to the capillary action. Patterns with a resolution of at least 20 μm have been obtained on organic polymeric materials and photoresists without heating or applied pressure. Compared to other methods ethanol mediated mTP is considerably faster and has smaller limitations on the stamp depth. Residual silicone layer detected on the metal surface after the transfer by XPS studies has been mostly removed by UV/ozone treatment. Organic field-effect transistors (OTFTs) based on the metal electrodes deposited by mTP have been successfully fabricated and tested.