Self-organization of polymer nanoneedles into large-area ordered flowerlike arrays

Wu, Dong; Chen, Qi‐Dai; Xu, Binbin; Jiao, Jian; Xu, Ying; Xia, Hong; Sun, Haitao

doi:10.1063/1.3213394

Cited by 41 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…These structures give rise to diverse functions ranging from mechanical strengthening (11) and directional adhesion (12, 13) to superhydrophobicity (14) and structural colors (15), thus inspiring researchers to devote their efforts to mimic these multifunctional structures for decades. Many top-down fabrication approaches such as photolithography together with deep dry etching (16), replica molding (14, 17), multibeam laser interference lithography (18,19), and electron-beam lithography (20) have been used in combination with capillary force self-assembly to produce hierarchical structures. However, these methods are either high-cost because of the expensive facilities or labor-intensive and time-consuming owing to the multistep patterning and etching procedure.…”

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confidence: 99%

Laser printing hierarchical structures with the aid of controlled capillary-driven self-assembly

Lao

Cumming

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Capillary force is often regarded as detrimental because it may cause undesired distortion or even destruction to micro/nanostructures during a fabrication process, and thus many efforts have been made to eliminate its negative effects. From a different perspective, capillary force can be artfully used to construct specific complex architectures. Here, we propose a laser printing capillaryassisted self-assembly strategy for fabricating regular periodic structures. Microscale pillars are first produced by localized femtosecond laser polymerization and are subsequently assembled into periodic hierarchical architectures with the assistance of controlled capillary forces in an evaporating liquid. Spatial arrangements, pillar heights, and evaporation processes are readily tuned to achieve designable ordered assemblies with various geometries. Reversibility of the assembly is also revealed by breaking the balance between the intermolecular force and the elastic standing force. We further demonstrate the functionality of the hierarchical structures as a nontrivial tool for the selective trapping and releasing of microparticles, opening up a potential for the development of in situ transportation systems for microobjects.laser printing | capillary force | self-assembly | hierarchical structures | microobject trapping P eople learn from daily life experience that individual filaments can coalesce, as with wet hairs or paintbrushes pulling out of paint. Analogs of this elastocapillary coalescence exist and are often amplified in micro/nanoelectromechanical system manufacturing processes because the capillary force tends to dominate over the standing force that needs to be overcome for coalescence when the scale is reduced (1, 2). When one aims to create slender structures, the dominant capillary force drives them to collapse, cluster, or be completely destroyed. Some efforts such as adopting a supercritical-point dryer (3, 4) have been made to eliminate these unwanted behaviors when fabricating high-aspect-ratio structures. However, from another point of view, the capillary-driven bottom-up self-assembly can be exploited as a valuable tool to construct complex architectures. Compared with other driving forces for self-assembly such as magnetism (5), electrostatic force (6), and gravity (7), capillary force self-assembly features the advantage of simplicity, low cost, scalability, and tunability.The desire for scalable and cost-effective self-assembly schemes comes from observations of the natural world, where self-assembled filamentous structures with mechanical compliance at the microscopic and mesoscopic scale are ubiquitous and include, to name a few, actin bundles (8), gecko feet hairs (9), and Salvinia leaf (10). These structures give rise to diverse functions ranging from mechanical strengthening (11) and directional adhesion (12, 13) to superhydrophobicity (14) and structural colors (15), thus inspiring researchers to devote their efforts to mimic these multifunctional structures for decades. Many top-down fabricat...

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confidence: 99%

Laser printing hierarchical structures with the aid of controlled capillary-driven self-assembly

Lao

Cumming

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Four-beam interference is one of the interference techniques used for the fabrication of large-area functional structures due to its outstanding capability in one-step realization of 2D/3D structures [15,16,18,[25][26][27][28]. As shown in Fig.…”

Section: Fabrication Of Functional Structures By Four-beam Interferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…High transmittance or low reflection is required in highpower laser systems, solar cells, and organic light emitting diodes (OLED) [40][41][42]. An antireflective coating by destructive interference is the usual option.…”

Section: Structures For Optical Manipulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The flexible tuning of beam angle widens the period from microscale to nanoscale and promotes its widespread applications in surface science [5]. With the detailed multibeam interference and multi-exposure of two-beam interference, structures such as microlenses [10], photonic quasi-lattices [24], and micro/nanopillars (micro/nanoholes) [18,25], and several micro/nanostructures based on these templates [11,16] are easily demonstrated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Laser interference fabrication of large-area functional periodic structure surface

Wang

et al. 2018

Front. Mech. Eng.

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Functional periodic structures have attracted significant interest due to their natural capabilities in regulating surface energy, surface effective refractive index, and diffraction. Several technologies are used for the fabrication of these functional structures. The laser interference technique in particular has received attention because of its simplicity, low cost, and high-efficiency fabrication of large-area, micro/nanometer-scale, and periodically patterned structures in air conditions. Here, we reviewed the work on laser interference fabrication of large-area functional periodic structures for antireflection, self-cleaning, and superhydrophobicity based on our past and current research. For the common cases, four-beam interference and multi-exposure of two-beam interference were emphasized for their setup, structure diversity, and various applications for antireflection, self-cleaning, and superhydrophobicity. The relations between multi-beam interference and multi-exposure of two-beam interference were compared theoretically and experimentally. Nanostructures as a template for growing nanocrystals were also shown to present future possible applications in surface chemical control. Perspectives on future directions and applications for laser interference were presented.

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“…Similarly, tilting of the substrate or introducing a wedged gap between the micropost and the confining surface would create a thickness gradient in the gel and, thereby, directional bending of the posts toward the thicker gel. 25 The capability to reconfigure the surfaces into more complex switchable patterns at a microscale is a very attractive and application-relevant feature of the future dynamic, "smart" materials. 2 Here we show that patterning of hydrogel layers around each micropost and/or a section of microposts with local thickness gradients ( Figure 2) can lead to coordinated bending of the microposts to form arbitrary surface patterns.…”

Section: Analysis and Modeling Of The Actuation Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbristle in gels: Toward all-polymer reconfigurable hybrid surfaces

et al. 2010

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Self-organization of polymer nanoneedles into large-area ordered flowerlike arrays

Cited by 41 publications

References 16 publications

Laser printing hierarchical structures with the aid of controlled capillary-driven self-assembly

Laser printing hierarchical structures with the aid of controlled capillary-driven self-assembly

Laser interference fabrication of large-area functional periodic structure surface

Microbristle in gels: Toward all-polymer reconfigurable hybrid surfaces

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