An aqueous-based silver nanoparticle ink technology developed in the last 10 years by chemicals giant Beyer has been acquired by high-tech chemicals specialist Clariant International.
The silver nanoparticle ink technology has only found a few markets such as RFID chips production and specific flexible substrates in the display industry but Clariant expects to develop the technology for a wider market including photovoltaics applications, most likely related to ink jet printing for flexible thin-film PV.
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Christian Kohlpaintner, member of the executive committee said: “The acquisition will strengthen our portfolio of new materials for the electronics and energy markets.”
Beyer has previously claimed the technology could be used for a wide range of printed electronics applications, notably low temperature requirements for plastic films, flexible substrates, glass, silicon and indium tin oxide (ITO) layers.
“Nano silver inks are an important step to develop a sustainable innovation platform for functional inks in addition to our product portfolio for printing inks which will provide unique solutions to our customers using our core competencies in surfactants and formulation technology,” added Frank Küber, head of new business development at Clariant.