Fabrication of Activated Carbon Electrodes by Inkjet Deposition

The inkjet deposition technology turns out to be interesting in various applications when one attempts to reduce manufacturing costs, simplify technological steps, and implement materials that could not be deposited in any other way. One of the limitations however, is the issue raised by resolution which is directly linked to the ejection head manufacturing technology. In this paper, a method of activated carbon deposition based on inkjet is presented. Activated carbon is extensively used in chemistry for its impurity absorption capabilities and in other applications like the fabrication of supercapacitors. It is shown in particular that by using a localized surface treatment with OTS and an activated carbon suspension stabilized by a surfactant, one can get 10 µm structures, which are, therefore, much smaller than the ejection head nozzle diameter. To implement and optimize the process, the contact angle measurement technique is utilized.