Nanoporous stamp for flexographic printing
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsAnastasios John Hart, Sanha Kim, Hossein Sojoudi, Karen K. Gleason
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Abstract
A nanoporous stamp for printing a variety of materials is disclosed. The nanoporous stamp may include a substrate and an array of carbon nanotubes disposed on and attached to the substrate. The array of carbon nanotubes can have an etched top surface and a wettable, nanoporous structure, and may include a coating thereon. The nanoporous stamp can be used in a variety of printing applications, and can print, among other things, colloidal and non-colloidal inks on a variety of substrates with a high degree of accuracy and fidelity.
Claims17
A method of flexographic nanoporous stamp printing, the method comprising:
- loading a patterned nanoporous stamp with ink, the patterned nanoporous stamp having a plurality of micro-scale features, wherein during the loading, ink is drawn into microstructures via capillary wicking;
- contacting the loaded patterned nanoporous stamp with a nanoporous scour to remove excess ink from the patterned nanoporous stamp;
- and
- printing a pattern on a target substrate with the loaded patterned nanoporous stamp by conformally contacting the patterned nanoporous stamp to the target substrate to form nanoscale contact points between the target substrate and the plurality of micro-scale features of the nanoporous stamp such that ink is drawn out of the microstructures and onto the target substrate,
- wherein loading the patterned nanoporous stamp with the ink includes loading the ink into each micro-scale feature in the plurality of micro-scale features, each micro-scale feature including a plurality of carbon nanotubes disposed on and attached to a substrate.
A method, comprising:
- printing using a nanoporous print stamp, wherein the nanoporous print stamp is configured for flexographic printing and comprises:
- a substrate;
- a patterned arrangement of carbon nanotubes disposed on and attached to the substrate, the arrangement of carbon nanotubes having a top surface having an average pore size of 100 nm or less, and a wettable, nanoporous structure;
- and
- a secondary material disposed on the carbon nanotubes whereby the secondary material adjoins at least portions of the carbon nanotubes and is configured to reduced capillary-induced deformation of the arrangement of carbon nanotubes when in use,
- the printing including:
- loading the nanoporous print stamp with ink such that ink is drawn into microstructures of the patterned arrangement of carbon nanotubes via capillary wicking;
- contacting the nanoporous print stamp to a non-porous roller such that ink from the nanoporous print stamp drawn out of microstructures of the patterned arrangement of carbon nanotubes and transferred to the non-porous roller;
- and
- contacting the non-porous roller to a target substrate such that the ink is printed on the target substrate by the non-porous roller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.