3D and Inkjet Printing by Colored Mie-Resonant Silicon Nanoparticles Produced by Laser Ablation in Liquid

Abstract

Optically resonant silicon nanoparticles have emerged as a prospective platform for the structural coloration of surfaces because of their strong and spectrally selective light scattering. In this work, we developed colorful inks based on polymer mixed with monodisperse Mie-resonant silicon nanoparticles for 3D and inkjet printing. We applied a laser ablation method in a flow cell for the mass production of silicon nanoparticles in water and separated the resulting nanoparticles with different sizes by density-gradient centrifugation. Mixing the colorful nanoparticles with the polymer allows for the printing of 3D objects with various shapes and colors, which are rigid against environmental conditions.

Single-Step Fabrication of Resonant Silicon–Gold Hybrid Nanoparticles for Efficient Optical Heating and Nanothermometry in Cells

“…Resonant dielectric Si NPs were fabricated using the laser ablation in liquid (LAL) method. ,, This approach is environmentally friendly due to the absence of toxic chemical reagents; it is also straightforward and can be scaled for mass production . Moreover, this method allows control over the shape, size, and morphology of the fabricated NPs by varying the irradiation laser parameters.…”

“…The obtained polydisperse Si NPs required further postprocessing steps to select a fraction of NPs of a certain size (Figure A). For this, a sucrose density-gradient centrifugation approach was used, which involves the creation of a density gradient using different sucrose solutions in a centrifugal tube. , A photograph with different fractions of Si NPs is shown in Figure S3. The obtained size-separated fractions of Si NPs inside the sucrose layers were washed with water to remove residual sucrose.…”

“…However, for efficient heat generation, such resonant dielectric NPs (e.g., Si NPs) should have a narrow size distribution for scattering and absorption to be balanced to meet the critical coupling condition . A conventional approach for the fabrication of crystalline Si NPs is laser ablation; however, it suffers from polydisperse outcomes as there is a lack of full control over the fabrication procedure. , Therefore, to apply Si NPs obtained with this method for heating purposes, they should be additionally size-separated (e.g., using a density gradient), and further, the fraction of NPs with required sizes should be extracted …”

Au–Si Nanocomposites with High Near-IR Light-to-Heat Conversion Efficiency via Single-Step Reactive Laser Ablation of Porous Silicon for Theranostic Applications

“…The product obtained by LAL is usually characterized by a rather broad bimodal size distribution, , while separation of nanoparticles to the desired size requires suspension post-treatment, which can make the product contamination unsuitable for subsequent applications without challenging purification. − In this respect, expansion of the pathways to control the size and homogeneity of the synthesized products during LAL synthesis is crucial for further development of this technique toward realistic applications. Key laser parameters (such as a wavelength or a repetition rate, as well as a pulse energy, duration, and sequence) are naturally tuned to modify the resulting product size.…”