Revealing The Morphology of Ink and Aerosol Jet Printed Palladium-Silver Alloys Fabricated from Metal Organic Decomposition Inks

Palladium films hold signicance due to their remarkable affinity for hydrogen diffusion, rendering them valauble for the seperation and purification of hydrogen in membrane reactors. However, palladium is expensive, and its films can become brittle after only a few cycles of hydrogen separation. Alloying with silver has been shown to overcome the problem of palladium embrittlement. Palladium-silver films have been produced via several methods but all have drawbacks, such as difficulties controlling the alloy composition. This study explores two promising jet printing methods: Inkjet and Aerosoljet. Both methods offer potential advantages such as direct patterning, which reduces waste, enables thin film production, and allows for the control of alloy composition. For the first time, palladium-silver alloys have been produced via inkjet printing using a palladium-silver metal organic decomposition (MOD) ink, which alloys at a temperature of 300 degrees C with nitrogen. Similarly, this study also demonstrates a pioneering approach for Aerosol Jet printing, showing the potential of a novel room-temperature method, for the deposition of palladium-silver MOD inks. This low temperature approach is considered an important development as palladium-silver MOD inks are originally designed for deposition on heated substrates. For the first time, palladium-silver alloys are produced via Inkjet and Aerosol-Jet printing using the same MOD inks. A pioneering approach for room-temperature deposition and annealing of Aerosol Jet printed MOD inks is demonstrated. Insights to localized nanoscale variation of film morphology and composition at the nanoscale, unobtainable through conventional methods, are enabled by Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging.image