I know, it sounds exceedingly weird. But a group of researchers at the University of Leeds recently discovered a way for a desktop printer loaded with a silver salt solution and Vitamin C to produce things like mobile phone antennas, circuits, RFID chips, and inductive coils on a variety of surfaces.

What's more, the group was able to pull off this fabrication exploit using only water-soluble bases instead of the conductive polymer inks and graphite pastes typically used during such processes.

As reported in the New Scientist, PhD student Seyed Bidoki began by loading a standard Hewlett Packard ink-jet printer with a silver nitrate solution--"metal ink" combined with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as the reducing agent--and water. After printing a circuit pattern, he then added that Vitamin C agent on top of it a few minutes later to make a solid silver form.

The researchers say that their modded printer can produce a variety of circuits and radio antennas on different surfaces including paper, cotton and acetate. They also claim that being able to "print out" such electronic components could one day provide a feasible alternative to current manufacturing techniques, which, as we all know, tend to be both energy intensive and environmentally taxing.

Fabrication wonders never cease.

Post by Bryan Gardiner

[via New Scientist]