Manufacturing strategies to create three-dimensional (3D) structures with multifunctional nanomaterials are of intense interest for fabricating building blocks in many electromechanical applications. A coil spring composed of graphene provides an important step toward the realization of all-carbon devices, as it is one of the essential elements for a wide range of systems. In this connection, here an unprecedented fabrication strategy to create a new type of 3D coil spring composed of laser-induced graphene springs (LIG-S) which is spontaneously produced via the pyrolytic jetting technique, is presented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaser technology is a cutting-edge process with a unique photothermal response, precise site selectivity, and remote controllability. Laser technology has recently emerged as a novel tool in the semiconductor, display, and thin film industries by providing additional capabilities to existing high-vacuum equipment. The and laser assistance enables using multiple process environments with a level of complexity unachievable with conventional vacuum equipment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelective laser sintering of nanoparticles enables the direct and rapid formation of a functional layer even on heat-sensitive flexible and stretchable substrates, and is rising as a pioneering fabrication technology for future-oriented applications. To date, laser sintering has been successfully applied to various target nanomaterials including a wide range of metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles, and extensive investigation of relevant experimental schemes have not only reduced the minimum feature size but also have further expanded the scalability of the process. In the beginning, the selective laser sintering process was regarded as an alternative method to conventional manufacturing processes, but recent studies have shown that the unique characteristics of the laser-sintered layer may improve device performance or even enable novel functionalities which were not achievable using conventional fabrication techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials (Basel)
November 2021
Poly(dimethylsiloxane) has attracted much attention in soft lithography and has also been preferred as a platform for a photochemical reaction, thanks to its outstanding characteristics including ease of use, nontoxicity, and high optical transmittance. However, the low stiffness of PDMS, an obvious advantage for soft lithography, is often treated as an obstacle in conducting precise handling or maintaining its structural integrity. For these reasons, a Glass-PDMS-Glass structure has emerged as a straightforward alternative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanomaterials (Basel)
July 2021
Gold is an essential noble metal for electronics, and its application area is increasing continuously through the introduction of gold nanoparticle ink that enables rapid prototyping and direct writing of gold electrodes on versatile substrates at a low temperature. However, the synthesis of gold nanoparticles has certain limitations involving high cost, long synthesis time, large waste of material, and frequent use of chemicals. In this study, we suggest simultaneous laser refining of gold cyanide and selective fabrication of gold electrodes directly on the substrate without a separate synthesis step.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) and selective laser sintering (SLS) are two distinct laser processes that can be applied to metal nanoparticle (NP) ink for the fabrication of a conductive layer on various substrates. A pulsed laser and a continuous-wave (CW) laser are utilized respectively in the conventional LIFT and SLS processes; however, in this study, CW laser-induced transfer of the metal NP is proposed to achieve simultaneous sintering and transfer of the metal NP to a wide range of polymer substrates. At the optimum laser parameters, it was shown that a high-quality uniform metal conductor was created on the acceptor substrate while the metal NP was sharply detached from the donor substrate, and we anticipate that such an asymmetric transfer phenomenon is related to the difference in the adhesion strengths.
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