MRI: Development of a System for Thin Film Deposition of Highly Ordered Organic Materials.

技术摘要本项目旨在开发一种独特的系统，用于使用直写工艺从溶液中对有机材料进行微光刻。该仪器将能够沉积各种材料，包括有机半导体、功能化蛋白质和聚合物材料。这项工作将建立在最近的一项发现的基础上，即通过在衬底表面横向引导薄膜材料的结晶，可以为各种有机半导体材料获得大于1毫米的晶区尺寸。大颗粒尺寸比常用技术有几个数量级的改进。单晶薄膜的缺陷密度比多晶薄膜低得多，并且表现出更好的电子和机械性能。因此，几个将使用这种新仪器的研究项目的目标将是将新材料的结构有序性与电、光学和机械性能联系起来。初步研究的材料在有机电子、有机光伏、合成胶原蛋白和可用于支架的生物相容性材料等领域有应用。容易地制备新材料的高度有序薄膜的能力将使材料的基础研究和用于上述领域的新材料的开发都得到快速发展。非技术摘要本项目旨在开发一种新的系统，该系统实现了一种新的廉价的方法来书写碳基软材料的图案，该方法具有组成材料的分子的高度排列。分子的有序排列对材料的性质和实际应用的适用性有很大的影响。新仪器将允许研究某些类型的分子有序如何影响材料的性能，使其适合形成电子开关或利用光发电。该仪器将产生比传统方法更高的有序度，因此将有助于开发用于明亮廉价显示器的材料，以及作为电源的高效碳基太阳能电池。其他将被研究的材料还可以用作合成的材料链，使皮肤具有弹性，还可以用作生物兼容材料，用于保持堵塞的动脉通畅，使血液自由流动。能够很容易地用多种材料制备高度有序的薄膜，这一关键能力将使上述领域的基础研究和高级应用取得快速进展。

Technical abstractThis project is to develop a unique system for microlithography of organic materials from solution using a direct-write process. The instrument will be capable of depositing a variety of materials, including organic semiconductors, functionalized proteins, and polymeric materials. The work will build on a recent discovery that by directing the crystallization of thin film materials laterally across the surface of a substrate, crystalline domain sizes larger than one millimeter can be obtained for a variety of organic semiconductor materials. The large grain sizes represent a several order-of-magnitude improvement over commonly used techniques. Single crystal films have much lower defect densities than polycrystalline films, and exhibit improved electronic and mechanical properties. Thus, the goal of several research projects that will use this new instrument will be to correlate structural ordering of new materials with electrical, optical, and mechanical properties. The materials to be studied initially have applications in the areas of organic electronics, organic photovoltaics, synthetic collagen, and biocompatible materials that could be used for stents. The capability to easily fabricate highly ordered thin films of new materials will enable rapid progress in both fundamental studies of materials and the development of new materials for applications in the areas mentioned above.Non-technical abstractThis project is to develop a system that implements a new inexpensive method for writing patterns of carbon-based soft materials with a high degree of alignment of the molecules making up the material. The ordering arrangement of molecules has a large influence on the properties of the materials and hence the suitability for practical applications. The new instrument will allow research on how certain types of molecular ordering influence properties of materials that might make them suitable for forming electronic switches, or to generate electricity from light. The instrument will produce a much higher degree of ordering than conventional methods, and will therefore assist in the development of materials for bright inexpensive displays, as well as for highly efficient carbon-based solar cells as a source of electricity. Other materials that will be investigated have applications as synthetic strands of the material that give skin its elastic properties, and as bio-compatible materials that can be used for hold blocked arteries open to allow blood to flow freely. The crucial capability to easily fabricate highly ordered thin films of a broad range of materials will enable rapid progress in both fundamental studies and advanced applications in the areas mentioned above.