Printing nanoparticles from the liquid and gas phases using nanoxerography

Abstract

This paper reports on the directed self-assembly of nanoparticles onto charged surface areas with a resolution of 200 nm from the liquid phase and 100 nm from the gas phase. The charged areas required for this type of nanoxerographic printing were fabricated using a parallel method that employs a flexible, electrically conductive, electrode to charge a thin-film electret. As electrodes, we used metal-coated polymeric stamps and 10 µm thick doped silicon wafers carrying a pattern in topography. Each electrode was brought in contact with a thin-film electret on an n-doped silicon substrate. The charge pattern was transferred into the thin-film electret by applying a voltage pulse between the conductive electrode and the silicon substrate. Areas as large as 1 cm2 were patterned with charge with 100 nm scale resolution in 10 s. These charge patterns attract nanoparticles. A liquid-phase assembly process where electrostatic forces compete with disordering forces due to ultrasonication has been developed to assemble nanoparticles onto charged based receptors in 10 s from a liquid suspension. A gas-phase assembly process was developed that uses a transparent particle assembly module to direct particles towards the charged surface while monitoring the total charge of assembled particles. Nanoparticles were generated using a tube furnace by evaporation and condensation at the outlet. The electrostatically directed assembly of 10–100 nm sized metal (gold, silver) and 30 nm sized carbon particles was accomplished with a resolution 500–1000 times greater than the resolution of existing xerographic printers.