The synergistic effect of benzotriazole and trimethylsiloxysilicate towards corrosion protection of printed Cu-based electronics

The development of printed electronics has gained much attention as an alternative for conventional metal-based electronics, mainly due to the ability to print electronic circuits on plastics and by much cheaper means as compared with conventional microelectronics. Here we report on a single stage formation of a highly corrosion resistance coating with hydrophobic properties on printed-Cu nanoparticles. Our method is based on the synergistic effect of benzotriazole (BTA) as corrosion inhibitor and trimethylsiloxysilicate (TMS) as hydrophobic component. Printed-Cu coated with such TMS/BTA layer exhibited excellent corrosion resistance in 3.5% NaCl solution, reducing the dissolution of Cu into soluble species by one order of magnitude.