Localized Photoactuation of Polymer Pens for Nanolithography
Abstract
Localized actuation is an important goal of nanotechnology broadly impacting applications such as programmable materials, soft robotics, and nanolithography. Despite significant recent advances, actuation with high temporal and spatial resolution remains challenging to achieve. Herein, we demonstrate strongly localized photoactuation of polymer pens made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and surface-functionalized short carbon nanotubes based on a fundamental understanding of the nanocomposite chemistry and device innovations in directing intense light with digital micromirrors to microscale domains. We show that local illumination can drive a small group of pens (3 × 3 over 170 μm × 170 μm) within a massively two-dimensional array to attain an out-of-plane motion by more than 7 μm for active molecular printing. The observed effect marks a striking three-order-of-magnitude improvement over the state of the art and suggests new opportunities for active actuation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 25, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.3390/molecules28031171
Entities
People
- Andrey Ivankin
- Huan Pang
- Jiaqi Zhang
- Shaopeng Li
- YuHuang Wang
- Zhongjie Huang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Donghua University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Science Foundation
- University of Maryland
- Yangzhou University