Aerosol jet co-printing for flexible and conductive protein–metal electrodes

Journal article

We report a rapid, single-step aerosol jet co-printing method for flexible, conductive collagen– silver electrodes. By simultaneously depositing collagen and silver nanoparticle inks, we achieve tunable conductivity and biocompatibility using short (<5 min) low-temperature (150 °C) curing. The resulting composites exhibit resistivity as low as ≈10-6 Ωm, maintain conductivity under mechanical flexure, and preserve partial protein structure for up to 3 weeks in physiological media. Cell culture studies confirm reduced cytotoxicity at high collagen content, defining a processing window that balances electrical and biological performance. These findings demonstrate that AJP co-printing offers a scalable and versatile fabrication strategy for next-generation flexible bioelectronic devices, with electrical and biological performance that can be tuned through material composition and processing parameters.

Authors: Zhou, Y; Burgoyne Morris, GH; Bax, DV; Kar-Narayan, S; Nair, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: AIP Publishing
• Journal: APL Electronic Devices
• Volume: 2
• Article number: 016112
• Publication date: 2026-02-06
• Acceptance date: 2025-12-30
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0300123
• EISSN: 2995-8423
• Language: English