PHOTOBIOFORM II

在塑料中选择性地形成金属纳米颗粒具有广泛的用途，可用于产生导电轨道、创建抗菌表面以及制造传感器和致动器，其具有广泛的应用，如微系统、印刷电子和可穿戴设备。PhotoBioform II旨在开发受生物启发、与工业相关的制造工艺，使用捕光络合物在非导电基板上选择性地形成金属图案，以加速嵌入这些基板的金属离子的还原。该项目涉及的主要挑战包括材料科学和制造领域。材料科学方面的挑战包括(1)可使用这种方法加工的各种材料，其中每种材料需要不同的处理技术或操作参数，(2)需要更好地了解光收集复合体中负责光合作用的机制，(3)确定用于这种还原过程的最佳材料配方，以及(4)了解在这个多维设计空间中作用的相互依赖的因素(波长、强度等)，以实现最佳的金属化过程。制造方面的挑战包括(1)提供这些工艺的工艺和制造技术(和设备)之间的相互作用；(2)使用气雾剂喷射的新型喷涂层工艺；(3)工业上对高速、高分辨率和低成本光刻技术的需求。假肢和编码器的特别高影响力的应用将被用来展示在这项研究中开发的制造能力。

Selective formation of metallic nanoparticles in plastics has a wide range of uses for generating conductive tracks, creating antimicrobial surfaces and for the fabrication of sensors and actuators which has a broad spectrum of applications such as microsystems, printed electronics and wearable devices. Photobioform II aims to develop bio-inspired, industrially relevant manufacturing processes that can selectively pattern metals onto non-conductive substrates using light-harvesting complexes to accelerate the reduction of metal ions embedded into these substrates. The key challenges addressed in this project cover the fields of material science and manufacturing. The material science challenges include (1) the vast range of materials which can be processed using this method where each material requires different treatment techniques or operational parameters, (2) the need for a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the photosynthesis within the light harvesting complexes, (3) the determination of the optimal material formulation for this reduction processes and (4) the understanding of the interdependent factors (wavelength, intensity, etc) acting in this multi-dimensional design space to target the for optimum metallisation process. The manufacturing challenges cover (1) the interplay between processes and manufacturing techniques (and equipment) to deliver these processes (2) the novel spray coating process using aerosol jetting and (3) the industrial need for high speed, high resolution and low cost photo-patterning techniques. Particular high impact applications of prosthetics and encoders will be used to demonstrate the manufacturing capabilities developed during this research.