Composite Soft Materials with Decentralized and Distributed Actuation
Abstract
A long-standing goal of the nanoscience and nanoengineering communities is to actualize the ability to construct arbitrarily complex 2D and 3D smart architectures with chemical and physical functionalities encoded directly into the materials at the micro- to nanoscale. In this project, Northwestern University (Mirkin Group) and TERA-print, LLC worked together to bring the prospect of engineering 3D nanostructures with limitless functionalization possibilities into reality. Beam pen lithography (BPL), invented in the Mirkin Group and commercialized by TERA-print, is uniquely positioned to engineer 3D functional materials with decentralized, spatially distributed actuation and control. BPL delivers structured and highly focused light to a substrate via a massively parallel array of pyramidal-shaped microprobes with nanoscopic apertures to enable the rapid generation of arbitrary patterns with diffraction unlimited, sub-300-nm resolution over the mesoscopic length scale. The simultaneous development of actuatable soft materials responsive to light and engineering solutions that allow BPL to act on such soft materials under all requisite environmental and thermodynamics states would, when combined, extend the limits of how complicated a 3D nanostructures shape can become and allow for the full scope of desired functionalities. The advances made by both teams over the last three years have brought the goal of facile printing of 2D and 3D smart nanostructures with precisely controlled spatiotemporal functionalities much closer to reality. By combining a microfluidics BPL platform with environmental controls and fundamental research into soft material properties, the future scope of soft materials nano-engineering will expand for the development of novel mechanical and chemical interfaces with living tissues, smart materials with adaptable optical and electronic properties, and sensing devices.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 07, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1230938
Entities
People
- Chad Mirki
Organizations
- Northwestern University