Abstract
An increasing number of technologies require the fabrication of conductive structures on a broad range of scales and over large areas. Here, we introduce advanced yet simple electrohydrodynamic lithography (EHL) for patterning conductive polymers directly on a substrate with high fidelity. We illustrate the generality of this robust, low-cost method by structuring thin polypyrrole films via electric-field-induced instabilities, yielding well-defined conductive structures with feature sizes ranging from tens of micrometers to hundreds of nanometers. Exploitation of a conductive polymer induces free charge suppression of the field in the polymer film, paving the way for accessing scale sizes in the low submicron range. We show the feasibility of the polypyrrole-based structures for field-effect transistor devices. Controlled EHL pattering of conductive polymer structures at the micro and nano scale demonstrated in this study combined with the possibility of effectively tuning the dimensions of the tailor-made architectures might herald a route toward various submicron device applications in supercapacitors, photovoltaics, sensors, and electronic displays.
Highlights
Conductive polymers (CPs) combine properties of polymers with the electrical, chemical, and optical properties of metals
This method provides a single-step and cost-effective approach for direct patterning of conjugated polymers on solid substrates, generating a variety of feature sizes ranging from tens of micrometers to hundreds of nanometers.[15−17] The electrohydrodynamic lithography (EHL) concept exploits an instability induced by an applied electric field across the liquefied polymer−air bilayer sandwiched between two-electrodes in a capacitor-like device
Because the total potential difference generated by the dipole layers at the interface is suppressed across the conductive liquid layer, the driving force of the pattern formation in the case of a leaky dielectric polymer subjected to the EHL patterning lies in the electric field in the air gap, E1.14 A subambient pressure within the film balances the electrostatic force due to the field in the air gap on the polymer−air interface, placing the film in tension, and generating the origin of the EHL instability
Summary
Conductive polymers (CPs) combine properties of polymers with the electrical, chemical, and optical properties of metals. In order to exploit this natural structure formation process, it is important, first, to control the resulting pattern and, second, to decrease the length scale to technologically interesting feature sizes Both requirements are fulfilled by imposing a laterally heterogeneous electric field with variations smaller than the intrinsic wavelength. EHL is shown to provide a low-cost, high-resolution patterning of functional π-conjugated polymers without compromising their properties and, enables a tunable method to fabricate and control the position and dimensions of the generated morphologies (by varying a number of experimental parameters, such as the initial film thickness, interelectrode spacing, applied voltage, surface tension, and lateral periodicity of the master electrode) at a low-cost, but this high-throughput technique opens up a new avenue for patterning CPs targeting various applications including FETs, LEDs, solar-cells, advanced sensors and microelectronics
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