The owl can fly without making any sound, because different nanostructures of its feathers affect sound differently. Gecko can climb on the slippery window, because the microfilaments on its feet generate strong capillary force. Peacock has colorful feathers, because the microfilaments on the feather surface reflect natural lights of different wavelengths. However, as a result of disadvantages on current nanostructure manufacturing, it’s still hard for us to produce the bionic structure or equipment at such microscale. The technique developed by USTC scholars provided possibility to address this problem.
The research team from USTC presented a combined laser printing and capillary force to build complex, self-assembling microstructures using a technique called laser printing capillary-assisted self-assembly (LPCS), which prepared a series of microfilament array with highly controllable and consistent structure, size, mechanical constant and spatial distribution. Through manual control of the surface tension between liquid and the nanostructures, the microfilament array can be freely regulated with high precision, then the hierarchical structure self-assembly preparation can be realized, also the micro objects can be selectively captured or released.
CHU Jiaru and his colleagues from the School of Engineering Science, USTC, in collaboration with Swinburne University of Technology, combined laser printing and capillary force to build complex, self-assembling microstructures using a technique called laser printing capillary-assisted self-assembly (LPCS). The research outcome was published on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and titled "Laser printing hierarchical structure with the aid of controlled capillary-driven self-assembly".
"This technique provides vital process for producing bionic structure or equipment at micro-nano scale, also it is a brand new technology for particle screening, capturing and transferring at micro-nano scale", said Dr. HU Yanlei from the School of Engineering Science, USTC and also the first author of this PNAS paper. This manufacturing process is easy to control, with high yield and environment protecting, which might be applied to analytical chemistry, drug delivery/release, cell biology, microfluidic engineering and other fields in the future.
Figure:Hierarchical structures prepared by laser printing with the aid of controlled capillary-driven self-assembly./ Image from CHU Jiaru's group.
Dr. HU Yanlei from the School of Engineering Science, USTC is the first author of the PNAS paper, and USTC is the first author affiliations. This study is funded by Natural Science Foundation of China and National Basic Research Program of China (973 program).
(HUANG Jun, USTC News Center)