Multiphoton Lithography of Organic Semiconductor Devices for 3D Printing of Flexible Electronic Circuits, Biosensors, and Bioelectronics

In recent years, 3D printing of electronics have received growing attention due to their potential applications in emerging fields such as nanoelectronics and nanophotonics. Multiphoton lithography (MPL) is considered the state-of-the-art amongst the microfabrication techniques with true 3D fabrication capability owing to its excellent level of spatial and temporal control. Here, a homogenous and transparent photosensitive resin doped with an organic semiconductor material (OS), which is compatible with MPL process, is introduced to fabricate a variety of 3D OS composite microstructures (OSCMs) and microelectronic devices. Inclusion of 0.5 wt% OS in the resin enhances the electrical conductivity of the composite polymer about 10 orders of magnitude and compared to other MPL-based methods, the resultant OSCMs offer high specific electrical conductivity. As a model protein, laminin is incorporated into these OSCMs without a significant loss of activity. The OSCMs are biocompatible and support cell adhesion and growth. Glucose-oxidase-encapsulated OSCMs offer a highly sensitive glucose sensing platform with nearly tenfold higher sensitivity compared to previous glucose biosensors. In addition, this biosensor exhibits excellent specificity and high reproducibility. Overall, these results demonstrate the great potential of these novel MPL-fabricated OSCM devices for a wide range of applications from flexible bioelectronics/biosensors, to nanoelectronics and organ-on-a-chip devices.

Femtosecond Laser 3D-printing of Conductive Microelectronics for Potential Biomedical Applications

Development of soft and conductive micro devices represents a demanding research topic in various biomedical applications, particularly organic bioelectronics. Among various fabrication methods, two-photon polymerization (2PP) using a wide range of photocurable inks is a promising 3D printing technique for construction of structures in submicron resolution. Herein, we introduce a novel conductive photosensitive resin by using poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate), and fabricate 3D conductive polymeric microstructures via 2PP. In the developed resin, presence of PEDOT:PSS significantly enhances the electrical conductivity of microstructures (~ 10 orders of magnitude).Clinical Relevance- Conductive microdevices based on the PEDOT:PSS-doped resin open new avenues in a broad range of biomedical research areas including neural interfaces, biosensors, and bioelectronics.

When graphene meets ionic liquids: a good match for the design of functional materials

Graphene is an attractive material that is characterized by its exceptional properties (i.e. electrical, mechanical, thermal, optical, etc.), which have pushed researchers to attach high interest to its production and functionalization processes to meet applications in different fields (electronics, electromagnetics, composites, sensors, energy storage, etc.). The synthesis (bottom-up) of graphene remains long and laborious, at the same time expensive, and it is limited to the development of this material in low yield. Hence, the use of graphite as a starting material (top-down through exfoliation or oxidation) seems a promising and easy technique for producing a large quantity of graphene or graphene oxide (GO). On the one hand, GO has been extensively studied due to its ease of synthesis, processing and chemical post-functionalization. One the other hand, "pristine" graphene sheets, obtained through exfoliation, are limited in processability but present enhanced electronic properties. Both types of materials have been of great interest to design functional nanomaterials. Ionic liquids (ILs) are task-specific solvents that exhibit tunable physico-chemical properties. ILs have many advantages as compared with conventional solvents, such as high thermal and chemical stability, low volatility, excellent conductivity and inherent polarity. In the last decade, ILs have been widely employed for the preparation and stabilization of various nanomaterials. In particular, the combination of ILs and graphene, including GO and pristine graphene sheets, has been of growing interest for the preparation, processing and functionalization of hybrid nanomaterials. Understanding the structure and properties of the graphene/IL interface has been of considerable interest for a large panel of applications ranging from tribology to energy storage.

Additive Manufacturing: Applications and Directions in Photonics and Optoelectronics

The combination of materials with targeted optical properties and of complex, 3D architectures, which can be nowadays obtained by additive manufacturing, opens unprecedented opportunities for developing new integrated systems in photonics and optoelectronics. The recent progress in additive technologies for processing optical materials is here presented, with emphasis on accessible geometries, achievable spatial resolution, and requirements for printable optical materials. Relevant examples of photonic and optoelectronic devices fabricated by 3D printing are shown, which include light-emitting diodes, lasers, waveguides, optical sensors, photonic crystals and metamaterials, and micro-optical components. The potential of additive manufacturing applied to photonics and optoelectronics is enormous, and the field is still in its infancy. Future directions for research include the development of fully printable optical and architected materials, of effective and versatile platforms for multimaterial processing, and of high-throughput 3D printing technologies that can concomitantly reach high resolution and large working volumes.

PVDF based ionogels: applications towards electrochemical devices and membrane separation processes

Ionogels have emerged as one of the most interesting and captivating form of composites which credits to the outstanding characteristics. One of the most important constituent of ionogels is ionic liquid, which show many attractive properties notably non-volatility, in-flammability, negligible vapor pressure, tunability, thermal stability and solvating ability. A large variety of matrix materials have been under consideration for ionogels, presently, polymer/ionic liquid based ionogels have attracted much attention. Numerous polymeric materials such as have been utilized for these polymer/ionic liquids based ionogels. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has been on top of the line as a matrix material for polymer based ionogels owing to its stability, aging and chemical resistance and mechanical strength. This review is primarily concerned with the properties of polyvinylidene fluoride based ionogels with an emphasis on their applications in various domains electrochemical devices, gas separation and liquid/liquid separations.

Highly Conductive, Photolithographically Patternable Ionogels for Flexible and Stretchable Electrochemical Devices

An ionic conducting membrane is an essential part in various electrochemical devices including ionic actuators. To miniaturize these devices, micropatterns of ionic conducting membrane are desired. Here, we present a novel type of ionogel that can be patterned using standard photolithography and soft imprinting lithography. The ionogel is prepared in situ by UV-initiated free-radical polymerization of thiol acrylate precursors in the presence of ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide. The resultant ionogel is very flexible with a low Young's modulus (as low as 0.23 MPa) and shows a very high ionic conductivity (up to 2.4 × 10^-3 S/cm with 75 wt % ionic liquid incorporated) and has a reactive surface due to the excess thiol groups. Micropatterns of ionogel are obtained by using the thiol acrylate ionogel solution as an ionic conducting photoresist with standard photolithography. Water, a solvent immiscible with ionic liquid, is used as the photoresist developer to avoid complete removal of ionic liquid from thin micropatterns of the ionogel. By taking advantage of the reactive surface of ionogels and the photopatternability, ionogels with complex three-dimensional microstructure are developed. The surface of the ionogels can also be easily patterned using UV-assisted soft imprinting lithography. This new type of ionogels may open up for building high-performance flexible electrochemical microdevices.

3D fabrication of all-polymer conductive microstructures by two photon polymerization

A technique to fabricate electrically conductive all-polymer 3D microstructures is reported. Superior conductivity, high spatial resolution and three-dimensionality are achieved by successive application of two-photon polymerization and in situ oxidative polymerization to a bi-component formulation, containing a photosensitive host matrix and an intrinsically conductive polymer precursor. By using polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEG-DA) and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT), the conductivity of 0.04 S/cm is reached, which is the highest value for the two-photon polymerized all-polymer microstructures to date. The measured electrical conductivity dependency on the EDOT concentration indicates percolation phenomenon and a three-dimensional nature of the conductive pathways. Tunable conductivity, biocompatibility, and environmental stability are the characteristics offered by PEG-DA/EDOT blends which can be employed in biomedicine, MEMS, microfluidics, and sensorics.