Abstract
For flexible and large-Area electronics, inkjet printing presents an attractive production technique; yet, creating environmentally friendly functional inks that are truly sustainable is a significant obstacle to the development of green electronics. Here, we demonstrate the use of a nanocarbon conductive ink from food waste for manufacturing printed resistive loads compatible with active components. The formulation is designed for inkjet printing, and it is made entirely of non-Toxic and renewable components: ethanol-Terpineol mixture as a dispersant, electrically conductive activated carbon nanoparticles, and ethyl cellulose as a binder and stabilizer. Activated carbon nanoparticles with a 30 to 120 nm diameter make up the ink, which has excellent colloidal stability and rheological properties for inkjet printing. This formulation makes the manufacturing of printed resistive elements for electrical circuits possible, where the number of layers and/or drop spacing during the printing process can be adjusted to modulate the sheet resistance. As a proof-of-principle, we use this formulation to fabricate high-resistive loads in the range of 1-10 MΩ for a simple unipolar NOT gate together with an organic transistor and a non-Toxic rechargeable battery. The logic circuit exhibits characteristic NOT gate behaviour with quasi-rail-To-rail output (ΔVout/Vdd = 86%) and minimal hysteresis. A peak voltage gain of 3.2 at the switching threshold (Vin ≈ Vdd/2) highlights its potential for integration into more complex low-voltage circuits. The proposed circuit demonstrates that our nanocarbon formulation is suitable for inkjet printing high resistance loads and compatible with other sustainable electronic components. © 2025 IEEE.