The quest for economical devices with faster speeds, lighter weights, and higher feature density drives demand for new fabrication tools that create ever more complex patterns, with sub-micron features. Typical state-of-the-art fabrication is top-down and involves multiple steps and careful surface preparation; Nature, on the other hand, provides us with examples of delicate, detailed, and beautiful patterns driven by instabilities, packing constraints, and simple geometries. By adding nanoparticles to the solvent, we make a "nano-ink" which allows us to print the resulting patterns onto flat and curved surfaces. Our method can be applied to a wide range of materials and potentially benefit novel technologies.
UPENN Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers
The LRSM at UPENN is a center of excellence for materials research and education. It facilitates collaboration between researchers from different disciplines including physics, chemistry, engineering, and biology to advance transformative scientific projects and solve societal challenges.