Direct route to high yield synthesis of metal nanoparticles for printable electronic devices

We found a high yield synthetic route to organic-soluble metal nanoparticles in the concentrated organic phase. The organic phase contains metal salt, amines, fatty acids, nonpolar solvent, and reducing agent. Even using only generic chemicals, organic-soluble silver and copper nanoparticles could be easily obtained by this simple and rapid reaction scheme at large scale. The hydrocarbon-protected metal nanoparticles showed excellent dispersion properties and were successfully printed onto polymer substrates. The printed pattern was heated at $200^{\circ}C$, which showed very low specific electrical resistance (< 10 uOhm$\cdot$cm), sufficient for conducting line of various printable devices.