3D Dip-Pen Nanolithography

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) can directly write a variety of materials on the substrates at the sub-50 nm to micrometer length scale. While this tool has been extensively exploited to construct functional nanostructures and address important scientific questions, extending the capability from low-dimensional molecular patterning to direct additive 3D manufacturing has yet to be demonstrated. In this work, the development of 3D-DPN is reported to enable the microscale 3D printing capability via designing a rapidly UV-curable liquid copolymer ink with appropriate viscoelastic properties. Two categories of 3D printing strategies via patterning dot and line pixels are explored, through which micrometer-high, arbitrary 3D structures could be programmed to generate. It is believed that this development will arouse the fundamental research and functional application interest in the field of tip-based additive 3D nanofabrication.