Nanostructured Free‐Form Objects via a Synergy of 3D Printing and Thermal Nanoimprinting

Abstract

High‐resolution surface patterning has garnered interests as a nonchemical‐based surface engineering approach for creating functional surfaces. Applications in consumer products, parts for transportation vehicles, optics, and biomedical technologies demand topographic patterning on 3D net shape objects. Through a hybrid approach, high‐resolution surface texture is incorporated onto 3D‐printed polymers via direct thermal nanoimprinting process. The synergy of geometry design freedom in 3D printing and the high spatial resolution in nanoimprinting is demonstrated to be a versatile fabrication of high‐fidelity surface pattern (from 2 µm to 200 nm resolution) on convex, concave semicylindrical, and hemispherical objects spanning a range of surface curvatures. The novel hybrid fabrication is further extended to achieve a high‐resolution curved mold insert for rapid prototyping via injection molding. The versatility of the fabrication strategies reported here not only provides a post‐3D printing process that enhances the surface properties of 3D‐printed objects but also opens a new pathway to enable future study on the effects of combining microscale and nanoscale surface texture with macroscopic curvature. Both have been known, individually, as an effective approach to tune surface functionalities.

Molecular Dynamics Investigation of the Deformation Mechanism of Gold with Variations in Mold Profiles during Nanoimprinting

“…Moreover, the base of the near-spherical mold near the flat mold junction was kept wide enough to minimize stress concentration effects and potential mold failure. Cylindrical and rectangular molds are routinely used in nanoimprint lithography and the use of a near-spherical mold was chosen based on recent 3-dimensional molds for nanostructured free-form features in thermal nanoimprinting for practical applications [ 46 , 47 ]. The two layers of atoms (3000 atoms) of gold substrate at the bottom of the silicon substrate (along 8 nm height) had a fixed boundary condition.…”

Injection Molding of Superhydrophobic Submicrometer Surface Topography on Macroscopically Curved Objects: Experimental and Simulation Studies

“…A reported hybrid process of 3D printing and nanoimprinting was employed to fabricate polymer-based nonplanar mold inserts with high-resolution surface patterns . The design rationale for mold inserts is described in the Supporting Information.…”

“…A reported hybrid process of 3D printing and nanoimprinting was employed to fabricate polymerbased nonplanar mold inserts with high-resolution surface patterns. 28 The design rationale for mold inserts is described in the Supporting Information. The mold inserts with molding surface upward were printed using a "Digital ABS" mixture of RGD515 and RGD535 photocurable resin (purchased from Stratasys), using a multimaterial PolyJet 3D printer (Stratasys J750).…”

A Programmable Nanofabrication Method for Complex 3D Meta-Atom Array Based on Focused-Ion-Beam Stress-Induced Deformation Effect

“…As shown in Table 1, several typical fabrication methods for 3D micro/nanostructure, including direct laser writing (DLW) [14][15][16][17][18], self-assembly [19,20], and nanoimprint lithography [21][22][23][24] have been widely used in specific fields. Although the mentioned methods have their own unique advantages, some disadvantages still exist, which limit their further application in 3D micro/nanostructure array fabrication.…”