Toward 3D Printing Technologies for the Fabrication of Nanoscale Actuator Arrays

智能材料对热、电压或磁场等外部刺激表现出独特的物理反应，使工程师能够在他们的设计中添加创新的新特性和功能。一个众所周知的智能材料家族由电活性导电聚合物组成。这些软材料在电场的作用下会改变形状，因此可以被利用来进行机械工作。 这一新研究计划的最终长期目标是发现和开发所需的知识和创新的新工具，以通过专门开发的3D打印技术在非常小的规模(纳米)上制造具有复杂细节的导电聚合物致动器阵列。为了实现这一长期愿景，未来五年的研究工作旨在将新开发的基于聚合物的智能材料和新兴的3D打印技术相结合，以制造具有独特性能的新型机械部件。 该计划分为三个后续阶段，每个阶段反映了当时的主要研究重点：第一阶段(0至4年)涉及新型智能材料系统3D打印的合成方法，并通过建立制造导电聚合物组件和表征其电化学-机械行为所需的核心技术培训高素质人员(HQP)。在第二阶段(第3至第8年)，HQP接受培训，以使用这些新材料和制造技术，以研究新的和创新的应用。最后，在第三阶段(五年以后)，通过深入研究与基本科学概念有关的研究问题，进一步加强HQP培训；其中一些问题只有通过完成基础阶段才能实现。这项提议的目的是在最初的5年资金期内全面执行第一阶段和启动第二阶段。 这项研究计划的成功为使用传统制造工艺无法生产的全新类型的智能材料驱动设备打开了大门，由此产生的致动器技术将立即用于各种应用，如微流体中的阀门、生物医学中的单细胞实验室以及表面工程中的可调流体-表面相互作用。这一计划推动了添加剂制造技术的前沿，在这个无与伦比的增长和工业兴趣的时代，因此预计将在加拿大和国外产生重大影响。

Smart materials exhibit unique physical responses to external stimuli such as heat, voltage or magnetic fields, and enable engineers to add innovative new features and functions to their designs. One well-known family of smart materials consists of electroactive conductive polymers. These soft materials change shape in response to an electric field, and can therefore be harnessed to perform mechanical work. The ultimate long-term goal of this new Research Program is to discover and develop the knowledge and innovative new tools required to fabricate conductive polymer actuator arrays with complex details on a very small scale (nanometers) by means of specially developed 3D printing technologies. To achieve this long-term vision, research effort in the next five years aims to combine newly developed polymer-based smart materials and emerging 3D printing techniques to fabricate novel mechanical components with unique properties. The Program is organized into three subsequent phases, with each phase reflective of the primary research focus at the time: Phase 1 (years 0 to 4) relates to synthesis methods for the 3D printing of new smart material systems, and trains highly qualified personnel (HQP) through the establishment of the core technologies required to fabricate conductive polymer components and characterize their electro-chemo-mechanical behaviour. In Phase 2 (years 3 to 8), HQP are trained to employ these new materials and manufacturing techniques in order to investigate new and innovative applications. Finally, in Phase 3 (beyond year 5) HQP training is further enhanced by delving into research questions pertaining to fundamental scientific concepts; some of which are only made possible through the completion of the foundational phases. This proposal aims to fully execute Phase 1 and initiate Phase 2 in the course of the initial 5-year funding period. Success of this Research Program opens the door for an entirely new class of smart material enabled devices that would be impossible to produce using conventional manufacturing processes, and the resulting actuator technology would be immediately useful in a variety of applications such as valves in microfluidics, single cell laboratories in biomedicine, and tunable fluid-surface interactions in surface engineering. This program pushes the frontier of additive manufacturing technology at a time of unparalleled growth and industrial interest, and is therefore anticipated to generate significant impact in Canada and abroad.