A Facile Approach for Fabricating Microstructured Surface Based on Etched Template by Inkjet Printing Technology

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Surface Engineering
• Microfabrication

Background:

• Microstructured surfaces are crucial for functional devices, offering properties like tunable wettability and flexibility.
• Conventional microfabrication methods (photolithography, printing) often rely on complex and costly templates or masks.
• Developing facile, scalable, and cost-effective methods for microstructured surface fabrication is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a facile and scalable approach for fabricating microstructured surfaces using inkjet printing technology.
• To demonstrate the creation of various microstructures (dots, lines, squares) using etched templates.
• To investigate the wettability properties of the fabricated microstructured surfaces.

Main Methods:

• Inkjet printing of a water-soluble polyacrylic acid solution onto a precured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate to create an etched template.
• Curing and rinsing the etched PDMS substrate to prepare it for use as a template.
• Utilizing the etched PDMS template for the facile fabrication of microstructured surfaces.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated microstructured surfaces with raised dots, lines, and squares using the inkjet-printed etched templates.
• Demonstrated controllable anisotropic wettability on a raised line microstructured surface.
• The developed method offers a flexible and scalable route for diverse microstructured surface fabrication.

Conclusions:

• The inkjet printing-based etched template method provides a cost-effective and versatile alternative to traditional microfabrication techniques.
• The fabricated microstructured surfaces exhibit tunable properties, such as anisotropic wettability.
• This approach holds significant potential for applications in optoelectronics, biological chips, microreactors, and wearable products.