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Microdrop generation and deposition of ionic liquids

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Abstract

This work describes the use of a piezo-actuated inkjet print head with a nozzle aperture of 50 µm to obtain picoliter drops of different model ionic liquids (ILs). A theoretical analysis of the microdrop generation of three model ILs is confirmed by experiments. The inkjet print process was optimized to enable a stable and reproducible drop ejection in both continuous and drop-on-demand modes by controlling the temperature of the nozzle, as well as the electrical signal sent to the piezo actuator used to generate the drops. Controlled volumes ranging from 43 ± 3 pL to 319 ± 1 pL have been achieved, with a volume control down to 3 pL. The null volatility of ILs yields an extremely high stability of the inkjet process, obtaining drops with very constant volumes during the entire print process. It also avoids the coffee staining effect observed in the deposition of conventional liquid drops. The possibility to deposit controlled volumes in a reproducible way is demonstrated here and applied to a proof-of-concept application with the aim to create dense concave optical lens arrays by replicating the deposited ionic liquid microdrops in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been partially funded by the IAPP Marie Curie action ACAPOLY (no PIAP-GA-2008-218075) of the 7th Framework Program of the EU, the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology (MAT2009-14695-C04-01), the Junta of Extremadura (GRU10149), and FEDER. Julia Perera-Nuñez acknowledges Junta de Extremadura for a predoctoral grant. The authors are pleased to acknowledge the EPFL Center of MicroNano Technology (CMI) for their valuable discussions and help.

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Author notes

  1. Víctor J. Cadarso

    Present address: Laboratory of Micro and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen, PSI, 5232, Switzerland

  2. Antonio Mendez-Vilas

    Present address: Department of Didactics of Mathematics, University of Sevilla, Sevilla, 41013, Spain

  3. J. Perera-Nuñez and V.J. Cadarso have contributed equally to the work presented in this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microsystem Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

    Víctor J. Cadarso & Jürgen Brugger

  2. Department of Applied Physics, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, 06071, Spain

    Julia Perera-Nuñez, Antonio Mendez-Vilas, Luis Labajos-Broncano & Maria-Luisa González-Martín

  3. Networking Research Center of Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Badajoz, 06071, Spain

    Luis Labajos-Broncano & Maria-Luisa González-Martín

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  1. Víctor J. Cadarso
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  2. Julia Perera-Nuñez
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  4. Luis Labajos-Broncano
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Correspondence to Víctor J. Cadarso or Jürgen Brugger.

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Cadarso, V.J., Perera-Nuñez, J., Mendez-Vilas, A. et al. Microdrop generation and deposition of ionic liquids. Journal of Materials Research 29, 2100–2107 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.162

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.162

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