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Kirscht T, Jiang L, Liu F, Jiang X, Marander M, Ortega R, Qin H, Jiang S. Silver Nano-Inks Synthesized with Biobased Polymers for High-Resolution Electrohydrodynamic Printing Toward In-Space Manufacturing. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2024; 16:44225-44235. [PMID: 39079046 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c07592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/23/2024]
Abstract
Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing is an additive manufacturing technique capable of producing micro/nanoscale features by precisely jetting ink under an electric field. However, as a new technique compared to more conventional methods, commercially available inks designed and optimized for EHD are currently very limited. To address this challenge, a new silver nanoink platform was developed by synthesizing silver nanoparticles in situ with biobased polymer 2-hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC). Typically used as a thickening agent, HEC is cost-effect, biocompatible, and versatile in developing inks that meet the rheology criteria for high-resolution EHD jetting. This approach significantly outperforms the traditional use of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), enabling the stabilization of high solids content (>50 wt %) nanoinks for over 10 months with an HEC dosage 20 times lower than that required by PVP. The HEC-synthesized silver ink displays excellent electrical properties, yielding resistivities as low as 2.81 μΩ cm upon sintering, less than twice that of pure silver. Additionally, the capability to sinter at low temperatures (<200 °C) enables the use of this ink on polymer substrates for flexible devices. The synthesized nanoinks were also found to be capable of producing precise, high-resolution features by EHD printing with smooth lines narrower than 5 μm printed using a 100 μm nozzle. Additionally, a semiempirical model was developed to reveal the relationship between printing resolution, ink properties, and printing parameters, enabling precise printing control. Moreover, for the first time, the unique ability of EHD to achieve precise fabrication under microgravity was conclusively demonstrated through a parabolic flight test utilizing the HEC-based nanoinks. The study greatly expands the potential of printing thin films for the on-demand manufacturing of electronic devices in space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyler Kirscht
- Department of Material Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States
| | - Liangkui Jiang
- Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Fei Liu
- Department of Material Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States
| | - Xuepeng Jiang
- Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Matthew Marander
- Department of Material Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States
| | - Ricardo Ortega
- Department of Material Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States
| | - Hantang Qin
- Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Shan Jiang
- Department of Material Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States
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Tkachenko V, Coppola S, Vespini V, Tammaro D, Maffettone PL, Ferraro P, Grilli S. Oscillation Dynamics of Dielectric Polymer Droplets during Electrohydrodynamic Jetting in a Wide Range of Viscosities. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2023; 39:18403-18409. [PMID: 38055972 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jetting of fluids is used for several applications such as inkjet printing, atomization of analyte in mass spectrometry, liquid metal alloy ion sources, and electrospinning of polymer fibers. Historically, the bulk of research has focused on nonviscous, highly conductive fluids which are most suitable for EHD spray and printing, while there is relatively little experimental work on EHD jetting of highly viscous liquid dielectrics. We studied the dynamics of oscillation and pulsating jetting from a suspended drop of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymers in an electric field, with particular attention to the viscosity dependence of the oscillation period and meniscus elongation and contraction time over a wide viscosity range (102-105 cSt). The reported results could help the appropriate design of EHD processes and may open new possibilities for the rheological characterization of liquid polymers using small volumes at the scale of nanoliters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Volodymyr Tkachenko
- Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Pozzuoli, NA 80078, Italy
| | - Sara Coppola
- Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Pozzuoli, NA 80078, Italy
| | - Veronica Vespini
- Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Pozzuoli, NA 80078, Italy
| | - Daniele Tammaro
- Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125 Naples, Italy
| | - Pier Luca Maffettone
- Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125 Naples, Italy
| | - Pietro Ferraro
- Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Pozzuoli, NA 80078, Italy
| | - Simonetta Grilli
- Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Pozzuoli, NA 80078, Italy
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Chen Y, Lao Z, Wang R, Li J, Gai J, You H. Prediction of Both E-Jet Printing Ejection Cycle Time and Droplet Diameter Based on Random Forest Regression. MICROMACHINES 2023; 14:623. [PMID: 36985030 PMCID: PMC10056634 DOI: 10.3390/mi14030623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing has broad application prospects in the preparation of flexible electronics and optical devices. Ejection cycle time and droplet size are two key factors affecting E-jet-printing quality, but due to the complex process of E-jet printing, it remains a challenge to establish accurate relationships among ejection cycle time and droplet diameter and printing parameters. This paper develops a model based on random forest regression (RFR) for E-jet-printing prediction. Trained with 72 groups of experimental data obtained under four printing parameters (voltage, nozzle-to-substrate distance, liquid viscosity, and liquid conductivity), the RFR model achieved a MAPE (mean absolute percent error) of 4.35% and an RMSE (root mean square error) of 0.04 ms for eject cycle prediction, as well as a MAPE of 2.89% and an RMSE of 0.96 μm for droplet diameter prediction. With limited training data, the RFR model achieved the best prediction accuracy among several machine-learning models (RFR, CART, SVR, and ANN). The proposed prediction model provides an efficient and effective way to simultaneously predict the ejection cycle time and droplet diameter, advancing E-jet printing toward the goal of accurate, drop-on-demand printing.
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Fang F, Tao X, Chen X, Wang H, Wu P, Zhang J, Zeng J, Zhu Z, Liu Z. Microlens Fabrication by Replica Molding of Electro-Hydrodynamic Printing Liquid Mold. MICROMACHINES 2020; 11:mi11020161. [PMID: 32028701 PMCID: PMC7074626 DOI: 10.3390/mi11020161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2019] [Revised: 01/10/2020] [Accepted: 01/23/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we synergistically combine electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing and replica molding for the fabrication of microlenses. Glycerol solution microdroplets was sprayed onto the ITO glass to form liquid mold by an EHD printing process. The liquid mold is used as a master to fabricate a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold. Finally, the desired micro-optical device can be fabricated on any substrate using a PDMS soft lithography mold. We demonstrate our strategy by generating microlenses of photocurable polymers and by characterizing their optical properties. It is a new method to rapidly and cost-effectively fabricate molds with small diameters by exploiting the advantages of EHD printing, while maintaining the parallel nature of soft-lithography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feiyu Fang
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Jihua Laboratory, Foshan 528000, China
| | - Xulei Tao
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Jihua Laboratory, Foshan 528000, China
| | - Xun Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Correspondence: (X.C.); (H.W.); (Z.L.); Tel.: +86-20-2388-0655 (H.W. & X.C.); +1-301-687-7799 (Z.L.)
| | - Han Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Jihua Laboratory, Foshan 528000, China
- Correspondence: (X.C.); (H.W.); (Z.L.); Tel.: +86-20-2388-0655 (H.W. & X.C.); +1-301-687-7799 (Z.L.)
| | - Peixuan Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Jiarong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Jun Zeng
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Ziming Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Zhen Liu
- Department of Physics and Engineering, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD 21532, USA
- Correspondence: (X.C.); (H.W.); (Z.L.); Tel.: +86-20-2388-0655 (H.W. & X.C.); +1-301-687-7799 (Z.L.)
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