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Microinjection molding has been attracting increasing attention and application in fabricating products with functional surface microstructures. The processing parameters, packing pressure, and melt temperature have important effects on the filling quality. In order to study the mechanisms of the packing pressure and melt temperature on the filling quality of micropillars, a simulation model of injection molding of nanopillars was constructed by molecular dynamics software and a series of injection molding experiments of micropillars were carried out in this paper. Subsequently, the mechanisms were analyzed qualitatively. The results showed that the frozen layers were formed at the interface between the polymer melt and mold under the action of heat transfer, which prevented effective filling of the polymer melt. The filling quality of the micropillars could be improved significantly via increasing the melt temperature and the packing pressure, but the mechanisms were different. To be specific, the increase of the packing pressure could make more polymer melts fill into the cavity fully. Thus, the density of the micropillars was increased and the filling quality could be improved. The forming rate of frozen layers could be slowed down by increasing the melt temperature. As a result, the purpose of improving the filling quality was achieved.

In micro-injection molding, the interaction between the polymer and the mold insert has an important effect on demolding quality of nanostructure. An all-atom molecular dynamics simulation method was performed to study the effect of nanostructure shape, interfacial adhesion energy, and mold insert material on demolding quality of nanostructures. The deformation behaviors of nanostructures were analyzed by calculating the non-bonded interaction energies, the density distributions, the radii of gyration, the potential energies, and the snapshots of the demolding stage. The nanostructure shape had a direct impact on demolding quality. When the contact areas were the same, the nanostructure shape did not affect the non-bonded interaction energy at PP-Ni interface. During the demolding process, the radii of gyration of molecular chains were greatly increased, and the overall density was decreased significantly. After assuming that the mold insert surface was coated with an anti-stick coating, the surface burrs, the necking, and the stretching of nanostructures were significantly reduced after demolding. The deformation of nanostructures in the Ni and Cu mold inserts were more serious than that of the Al2O3 and Si mold inserts. In general, this study would provide theoretical guidance for the design of nanostructure shape and the selection of mold insert material.

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