Programmable nanoparticle patterning by droplet electrophoretic deposition

Abstract

Here, we demonstrated the printing of a circular pattern of 200 nm nanoparticles by droplet electrophoretic deposition (EPD). For programming the deposition of the pattern, the circular electrode array circuit was designed on a printed circuit board (PCB) based on a polyimide substrate. A 5 μl 200 nm fluorescent nanoparticle suspension (Ex. 505/Em. 515) was dropped onto the PCB for single droplet EPD. For the programmable pattern, a 20 μl nanoparticle suspension was patterned in the shape of a checkerboard and the letter ‘N’ on an array of 4 × 4 electrodes using an expanded droplet EPD. Furthermore, the extended programmable droplet EPD performed respectably on all areas of a 10 × 10 electrodes array when the letters ‘N’, ‘A’, ‘N’, and ‘O’ were patterned. To provide optical transparency with flexibility, the patterned nanoparticles on the PCB were transferred to the polydimethylsiloxane. The extended programmable droplet EPD could provide a simple, fast, two-dimensional maskless patterning fabrication process for nanoparticles such as biomaterials and color quantum dots.

Keywords

• Droplet electrophoretic deposition
• Printed circuit board
• Nanoparticles patterning
• Transferring process
• Polydimethylsiloxane