This article explores the emergence of alternative conductive inks for printed electronics. The rising cost of raw and bulk silver is causing the inflation of conductive inks that rely on silver flakes as a conductive element, and alternatives such as copper ink and carbon inks are being developed.
Silver has powered the conductive inks market for decades, but its soaring price is forcing the industry to question whether it can remain the material of choice. As silver prices climb, the economics of silver-flake inks are coming under increasing pressure, particularly in high-volume applications such as photovoltaics. Copper, carbon, and other alternatives are gaining attention but replacing silver is not simply a question of cost. The race is now on to find a material that can match silver's performance without its price tag.
For more than a decade, IDTechEx has conducted detailed research across the printed electronics and conductive inks industry, independently assessing technological developments alongside commercial and market trends. Its latest report, "Conductive Inks Market 2026-2036: Technologies, Applications, Players", provides 10-year market forecasts supported by extensive analysis of the key applications driving demand for conductive inks. With a broad range of formulations now available, each offering different combinations of conductivity, curing characteristics, and printability, the report examines the evolution of conductive ink technologies and identifies the major application areas expected to shape future market growth.
The demand for conductive ink is growing, with a larger share coming from non-silver inks. Source: IDTechEx
The challenge extends beyond overcoming the technical limitations of alternative conductive inks. Suitable applications must also be identified where lower electrical performance or processing characteristics can be tolerated. Rather than directly replacing silver in all applications, materials such as copper and carbon are likely to gain traction first in markets where their cost advantages outweigh their performance limitations.
Copper Inks are a Significant Rival
The primary value proposition of copper inks is their significantly lower cost compared with silver-based alternatives, with copper metal costing more than 100 times less than silver. This cost advantage becomes increasingly significant as metal prices rise, given that raw material costs represent a much larger proportion of the overall cost of silver inks. Copper inks also offer additional benefits over silver, including improved solderability and a potentially more sustainable material profile.
Beyond pure copper inks, many players are developing silver-copper hybrid inks. These typically consist of copper flakes, coated with silver, and dramatically reduce the silver loading required. The hybrid model is one method to avoid oxidation of copper inks, which is a major obstacle to achieving sufficient levels of conductivity. Early adoption of copper inks has been seen in RFID tags and printed circuit boards, that undergo flash sintering. RFIDs are a particularly interesting case, with copper inks benefiting from the ever-increasing emphasis on sustainability, since copper biodegrades far more readily than silver.
Low-Cost Carbon Inks Offer Compelling Alternative
High-resistivity carbon black inks are largely commoditized, with production concentrated among a small number of established suppliers, creating limited opportunities for new market entrants. Nevertheless, their low cost makes them well suited to applications such as non-transparent capacitive sensing or printed heaters, where high conductivity is not required. As the adoption of capacitive sensing expands into applications such as leak detection in smart buildings, demand for these low-cost carbon-based inks is expected to increase.
Nanocarbons such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are often cited as superlative options for conductive inks. However, CNT inks are rarely deployed as standalone conductive materials but are gaining traction in hybrid formulations with silver nanowires to produce transparent conductors for applications including capacitive touchscreens, heaters, and antennas. Functionalized CNT inks, incorporating chemical or biological receptors, are also attracting interest for sensing applications. Nevertheless, the most promising opportunities for CNTs generally exploit their thermal and structural properties rather than their electrical conductivity alone. For further information on the CNT market, see the IDTechEx report, "Carbon Nanotubes 2025-2035: Market, Technology & Players".
Outlook for the Coming Decade
While research is ongoing to develop alternative ink technologies, the demand for ink will be dominated by silver flake-based ink in the short term. By the end of the decade the portion of demand met by pure silver-flake ink will have fallen to 32%. Other ink types will seize significant portions of the market that do not require such high performance, such as RFIDs, basic circuits, printed heaters and touch sensors.
For more details on the conductive inks market, including segmentations by application area, see the new IDTechEx report, "Conductive Inks Market 2026-2036: Technologies, Applications, Players". To find out more, including downloadable sample pages, please see www.IDTechEx.com/Ink. For the full range of related research available from IDTechEx, visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research/AM.
