Printing Materials
19 September 2007, 20:12
Categories: molecular-manufacturing tools
While architects speak excitedly about 3D printing technologies enabling them to print maquettes out of starch or resins, researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, have developed an advanced inkjet printer that spits out materials. Actually, their printer doesn’t push the materials out of the nozzles, rather it uses capillary forces to draw out the fluid medium and deposit the particles that form materials. Their electrohydrodynamic inkjet (e-jet) printer can precisely print dots of various materials just 250 nanometers in diameter, and could make it possible to rapidly create complex nanoscale structures. So far, they have printed very precise patterns of electrically conducting polymers and carbon nanotubes; they have also shown that DNA can be printed without damaging it.
“The goal is to do manufacturing,” explains John Rogers, one of the researchers. He claims the new printers can use a broad range of materials for manufacturing novel devices, from plastic electronics and flexible displays, to photovoltaic cells and new biomedical sensors.
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Posted by: The Editors
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