The rational evaluation of carbon-based conductive ink performance is critical to both industrial production and applications. Herein, a model to evaluate writing performance of conductive ink by line resistance was proposed by investigating possible relations among different parameters and establishing relevant model to estimate ink writing performance. Bulk conductive inks were prepared and characterized to provide samples for model. To improve the precision of model, the impact of external factors including writing speed and angle was studied. Nonlinear regression and back propagation artificial neural network were employed to estimate line resistance, and cross check validation was conducted to prove robustness and precision of model. Most importantly, the investigation will open up a new path for the exploration of other carbon-based handwritten electronic devices.

Aqueous gold nanoparticle dispersion was synthesized by chemical reduction method using diethanolamine as reducing agent and polyethyleneimine as dispersion stabilizer. The synthesis conditions for the stable dispersion of the gold nanoparticle suspension were determined by changing the amount of the reducing agent and dispersant during the wet chemical synthesis procedures. The face centered cubic lattice structure of the gold nanoparticles was confirmed by using X-ray diffraction and the morphologies of the nanoparticles were observed by transmission electron microscope. The synthesized gold nanoparticle dispersion was concentrated by evaporating the dispersion medium at room temperature followed by the addition of ethyleneglycol as humectant for the increase of the elastic properties to obtain gold nanoparticle inks for direct ink writing process. The line patterns were obtained with the gold nanoparticle inks during the writing procedures and the morphologies of the fine patterns were observed by scanning electron microscope.