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Drop-on-demand inkjet printing of alumina nanoparticles in rectangular microchannels

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Abstract

A procedure has been developed for applying a piezoelectric drop-on-demand inkjet printing technology to deposit metal oxide nanoparticles such as alumina in stainless steel microchannels. The printability of inks having different solid concentrations, co-solvents, hydro-soluble polymers, viscosities, and surface tensions was tested. The effect of piezoelectric activation parameters on properties of generated microdrops such as drop size and velocity was investigated. Depending upon the ink composition, three different types of coated film shapes were observed in rectangular microchannels. A uniform coating in rectangular microchannels was achieved by correctly tuning the directional stability of microdrop, ink composition, and microdrop properties. It is observed that drying effects such as coffee ring effect have a large impact on the final shape of the deposited alumina layers. The adhesion of printed alumina layers was tested after drying and calcination in harsh environments such as ultrasonic baths, and it was satisfactory.

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Acknowledgments

S. Lee acknowledges the financial support by the Helmholtz Research School of Energy-Related Catalysis. The authors would like to thank Mrs. Uta Gerhards and Mr. Florian Messerschmidt for their technical support for the elemental analysis of thin films. Discussions with Mr. Suresh Kumar Garlapati (INT-KIT) are also highly acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Micro Process Engineering (IMVT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

    Aswani K. Mogalicherla, Seungcheol Lee, Peter Pfeifer & Roland Dittmeyer

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  1. Aswani K. Mogalicherla
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  2. Seungcheol Lee
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Correspondence to Aswani K. Mogalicherla.

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Mogalicherla, A.K., Lee, S., Pfeifer, P. et al. Drop-on-demand inkjet printing of alumina nanoparticles in rectangular microchannels. Microfluid Nanofluid 16, 655–666 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1260-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1260-3

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