Bubble-printing of Colloidal Nanoparticles into Functional Materials and Devices

该补助金支持在打印技术方面贡献新知识的研究，该技术是以胶体纳米颗粒作为构建块进行制造的。将胶体纳米颗粒印刷到功能材料和设备中提供了一种经济可行的方法，用于制造纳米级结构和组件，用于各种应用，如传感，能量收集，固态照明和信息显示。这种技术能力促进国家繁荣和安全。诸如凹版印刷和喷墨印刷的印刷技术在消除用于器件制造的常规光刻中所需的繁琐的掩模对准和多步骤工艺方面具有优势。然而，现有的打印技术分辨率低，后处理时间长，对胶体溶液的性质有特殊要求。气泡印刷利用光学控制的气泡，使胶体颗粒在大多数基板上的通用图案化。该奖项支持基础研究，为气泡打印的发展提供必要的知识，使其成为功能材料和设备的原型和可扩展制造的可行技术。该研究是在光子学，流体学，胶体科学和制造科学的接口，为学生提供跨学科的研究机会，并有助于扩大妇女和代表性不足的少数民族学生在制造和工程的参与。将研究成果纳入外展计划有助于提高公众对纳米技术和科学进步的兴趣。气泡印刷采用激光束通过光热效应在胶体悬浮液和基底的界面处产生微气泡。气泡通过Marangoni对流、表面张力、气体压力和基底粘附力的协调作用将胶体纳米颗粒捕获并固定在基底上。气泡印刷可以克服现有印刷技术的局限性，如分辨率和特征保真度差。然而，需要克服一些科学障碍，以实现气泡打印的全部潜力，用于从胶体颗粒可规模化制造功能材料和设备。本研究填补了气泡产生和打印机理的知识空白。该研究方法是通过模拟来进行实验，以推进对气泡动力学和纳米颗粒组装的基本理解，并阐明在产生多个微气泡时快速运输，捕获和有针对性地固定胶体颗粒的新物理机制。该项目开发了一种用于功能材料和设备的可扩展打印的系统，具有高分辨率，吞吐量，稳定性和再现性，并展示了现场气泡打印的能力-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

This grant supports research that contributes new knowledge in printing technology, which is manufacturing with colloidal nanoparticles as building blocks. Printing of colloidal nanoparticles into functional materials and devices provides an economically viable way towards manufacturing nano-scale structures and components for diverse applications such as sensing, energy harvesting, solid-state lighting, and information displays. Such a technological capability advances national prosperity and security. Printing techniques such as gravure printing and inkjet printing have advantages in eliminating tedious mask alignment and multi-step processes required in conventional lithography for device fabrication. However, existing printing techniques have low resolution, considerable post-processing time, and special requirements on the properties of colloidal solutions. Bubble printing exploits optically controlled bubbles to enable versatile patterning of colloidal particles on most substrates. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for the development of bubble printing into a viable technology for both prototyping and scalable manufacturing of functional materials and devices. The research is at the interfaces of photonics, fluidics, colloidal science, and manufacturing sciences, provides interdisciplinary research opportunities for students and helps broaden participation of women and underrepresented minority students in manufacturing and engineering. The incorporation of the research results into outreach programs helps promote public interest in nanotechnology and scientific advancement. Bubble printing employs a laser beam to generate a microbubble at the interface of colloidal suspension and a substrate via opto-thermal effects. The bubble captures and immobilizes the colloidal nanoparticles on the substrate through coordinated actions of Marangoni convection, surface tension, gas pressure, and substrate adhesion. Bubble printing can overcome the limitations of existing printing techniques such as poor resolution and feature fidelity. However, some scientific barriers need to be overcome to realize the full potential of bubble printing for scalable fabrication of functional materials and devices from colloidal particles. This research is to fill the knowledge gap on the mechanisms of bubble generation and printing. The research approach is to perform experiments supported by simulations to advance the fundamental understanding of bubble dynamics and nanoparticle assembly, and elucidate the novel physical mechanism for rapid transport, capture and targeted immobilization of colloidal particles at the generation of multiple microbubbles. The project develops a system for scalable printing of functional materials and devices with high resolution, throughput, stability and reproducibility, and demonstrate the capability of bubble printing for site-specific fabrication and integration of multiple functional devices on single platforms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.