Fabrication of three dimensional patterns of wide dimensional range using microbes and their applications

Abstract

Inspired by the wound healing property of certain trees, we report a novel microbes based additive process for producing three dimensional patterns, which has a potential of engineering applications in a variety of fields. Imposing a two dimensional pattern of microbes on a gel media and allowing them to grow in the third dimension is known from its use in biological studies. Instead, we have introduced an intermediate porous substrate between the gel media and the microbial growth, which enables three dimensional patterns in specific forms that can be lifted off and used in engineering applications. In order to demonstrate the applicability of this idea in a diverse set of areas, two applications are selected. In one, using this method of microbial growth, we have fabricated microlenses for enhanced light extraction in organic light emitting diodes, where densely packed microlenses of the diameters of hundreds of microns lead to luminance increase by a factor of 1.24X. In another entirely different type of application, braille text patterns are prepared on a normal office paper where the grown microbial colonies serve as braille tactile dots. Braille dot patterns thus prepared meet the standard specifications (size and spacing) for braille books.

Development of a process for generating three-dimensional microbial patterns amenable for engineering use

“…7 This connement was achieved by blocking the pores of lter paper at controlled locations by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to prevent nutrient delivery to yeast cells. But, for enabling engineering applications, we approach differently in this work, which is inspired by a fascinating feature observed in a tree named "Pongamia Pinnata", 9 where a scratch made on the trunk of this tree recovers as a protrusion, as opposed to an indentation observed in most other trees.…”