Solvent-based Roll-to-Roll Nanoimprinting for Large Area Nanopatterning

纳米结构材料表现出非凡的光学、电学、机械和化学特性，使新型设备具有增强的性能和功能。纳米结构经常用于许多应用中，包括光致发光、化学和生物传感、生物技术、固态照明、通过光催化水分解的氢生产和其他用途。纳米技术的这些不同领域要求纳米纤维技术具有成本效益和实用性，同时保持质量控制和工艺灵活性。纳米纤维技术还必须是可扩展的，以便无缝地应用于实验室以外的实际应用。尽管已经取得了进展，但仍然缺乏能够满足所有必要要求的通用纳米纤维技术。这项研究将开辟一条新的纳米制造工艺途径，可用于加速实验室和中试规模的器件开发，并可扩大规模，用于大面积，高通量的产品制造。这项研究将对纳米技术、纳米制造、等离子体激元学、光电子学和纳米光子学等领域产生重大影响。计划是为研究生和本科生从代表性不足的群体接受培训，参加这一高度跨学科的研究和进行实验，在新的华盛顿清洁能源Testbeds facility.Nanoimprintlithography是一种简单，低成本，高分辨率和高通量的nanofabetics技术与兼容性的大规模卷对卷制造。然而，目前的卷对卷纳米压印光刻工艺都是基于热或紫外固化技术，需要高温或特殊的光聚合物抗蚀剂。此外，辊模通常通过耗时且昂贵的制造工艺制成。该研究小组的目标是设计和开发一种新的辊对辊纳米压印光刻工艺，使用环境友好的聚合物抗蚀剂和高分辨率的复合带模具。该研究是通过对溶剂辅助条件下模腔填充的力学和流体动力学的基本理解来完成的，以在大面积柔性基底上以高分辨率和高吞吐量生产优质纳米结构。溶剂辅助纳米压印提供低温和低压工艺，消除了模具、基板和抗蚀剂之间的热膨胀变化所导致的问题，并降低了能量输入成本，同时提高了处理速度。新的复合弹性带模具可轻松、经济地复制，用于快速原型制作，同时提供高分辨率。使用这种方法在柔性衬底上制造高质量的纳米结构，并将其集成到新型柔性光电器件中以展示其能力。

Nanostructured materials exhibit extraordinary optical, electrical, mechanical and chemical properties that enable novel devices with enhanced performance and functionality. Nanostructures are frequently utilized in numerous applications including photovoltaics, chemical and biological sensing, biotechnology, solid-state lighting, hydrogen production via photocatalytic water splitting and other uses. These various areas of nanotechnology demand nanofabrication techniques that are cost effective and practical while maintaining quality control and process flexibility. The nanofabrication techniques must also be scalable in order to be seamlessly applied to real-world applications beyond the laboratory. Despite progress having been made, a versatile nanofabrication technology that can meets all necessary requirements is lacking. This research will open up a new nanomanufacturing process pathway that can be applied to speed-up laboratory and pilot-scale device development and also be scaled-up for large-area, high-throughput product manufacturing. This research will make significant impacts on the fields of nanotechnology, nanomanufacturing, plasmonics, optoelectronics and nanophotonics. Plans are for graduate and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups to receive training, participate in this highly interdisciplinary research and conduct experiments in the new Washington Clean Energy Testbeds facility.Nanoimprint lithography is a simple, low-cost, high-resolution and high-throughput nanofabrication technique with compatibility for large-scale roll-to-roll manufacturing. However, current roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography processes are all based on either thermal or ultraviolet-based curing techniques that require either high temperature or special photopolymer resists. In addition, roller molds are typically made by time-consuming and costly fabrication processes. The research team aims to design and develop a new roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography process using environmentally friendly polymer resists and a high-resolution composite belt mold. The research is accomplished through fundamental understanding of mechanics and fluid dynamics of mold cavity filling under solvent-assisted conditions to produce quality nanostructures on large area flexible substrates with high resolution and high throughput. Solvent-assisted nanoimprinting offers a low temperature and low pressure process, which eliminates issues resulting from thermal expansion variations between the mold, substrate and resist and reduces energy input costs while increasing processing speed. New composite elastomeric belt molds are easily and affordably replicated for rapid prototyping while providing high-resolution. The high quality nanostructures on flexible substrates are fabricated using this method and integrated in to novel flexible optoelectronic devices to demonstrate its capabilities.