(165l) Additive Manufacturing of Polymer/Nanoparticle Composites

The conventional use of prefabricated templates has been used in controlling long-range orders of nanoparticles, such as silica or gold, but these controls require the potentially difficult fabrication of a template. Our method, however, will leverage both 3d printing and self-assembly in preparing polymer and nanoparticle materials as alternative layers. The dimensions of polymer layers, together with their compositions and surface tensions, were found to influence the subsequently-deposited nanoparticle morphologies. Nanoparticles of different morphologies and polymers of different chemistry will be used as demonstrations for the generalized manufacturability of our processing setup. Upon alignment, the nanoparticles with anisotropic conductivities will demonstrate through-layer electron flowability, proving to be critical in multifunctional sensors. The design of polymer morphologies with porous structures will also facilitate transport behaviors and enhance sensitivity/selectivity in low-density substance sensing. Our manufacturing method will be useful in programming nanoparticle depositions and alignment, manipulated surface morphology, and designable interfacial transitions. The prepared composites will find applications in micro-circuit, magnetic storage devices, drug delivery, sensing, and actuating.