A bio-inspired method to inkjet-printing copper pattern on polyimide substrate

•A new type of PDA-Ag catalytic ink was developed.•PDA-Ag catalytic ink can induce the formation of electroless copper coating.•A mussel-inspired method to fabricate copper pattern on polyimide substrate was proposed for the first time.

In this work, we propose a mussel-inspired method to fabricate copper pattern on polyimide substrate by an inkjet printing method. A new type of catalytic ink containing polydopamine (PDA) and silver ammonia solution was developed, which can induce the formation of electroless copper coating. As a result, we successfully prepared copper pattern which has good adhesion by inkjet-printing. Due to the unique property of PDA that is able to adhere to almost every kind of material, this method may be applied to diverse substrates in the future.