How do organic additives affect the properties of electronic pastes: a combined study of rheology and printability

In recent years, the progress of screen printing technology has posed important challenges for the development of electronic pastes. As an important additive, organic additives play a crucial role in achieving excellent rheological properties and precise precision printing of electronic pastes. In the investigation, the effects of additive addition on viscosity, recovery rate, stability, printability, and electrical conductivity of the organic carriers and electronic pastes were studied. Meanwhile, the steady-state flow curves of organic carriers were fitted by Ostwald-de Waele power law model. The results manifested that the organic carrier (T-4), optimized for the optimal ratio of 5 wt% polyether modified silicone oil and 4 wt% ED120, had the best dispersibility, and the corresponding model parameter K reached the minimum value (0.0804) and n reached the maximum value (0.9751). The Ag/Al paste prepared by T-4 had a stable and uniform structure, excellent printing performance, and electrical conductivity (Average line resistance: 3.17 × 10^–6 Ω cm), and has been successfully used in solar cells. The study contributes to the optimization and development of organic carriers and electronic pastes and further improves the application of electronic pastes in the field of solar cells.