The use of 3D printing is no longer surprising. You can print objects at home and at work, both from metal and plastic. It remains only to reduce the resolution of the nozzles and increase the variety of source materials. And there is still a lot to be done in each of these areas.
Another milestone in the advancement of 3D printing scientists led by researchers from the ETH Zurich (ETH Zurich). Scientists have presented a new promising technology for printing micro-objects with metals at a very high resolution - up to 250 nm. Today, 3D printing of micro-objects with metals is carried out using specially made inks. These are metal nanoparticles placed in a liquid in the form of a suspension (suspension). The resolution of such printers is micrometers, and the printing is completed by obligatory annealing to fix the model. This final stage has many disadvantages, including low porosity and organic (solvent) contamination. What do the Swiss offer?
Scientists from Zurich replaced the metal suspension with printing directly with metals. More precisely, metal ions. The design of the print head with two so-called consumable anodes is proposed. Why with two? That's better! It is possible to print a metal micro-object alternately with either one or another metal, or even two at once, as if creating an alloy with the desired ratio of one and the other material. The principle of the proposed 3D printing is that under a high voltage applied to the anode, metal ions break off and fly to the substrate, where they settle and turn into the original metal. For this to work, the substrate is coated with a layer of solvent in which redox chemical reactions take place. But printing occurs immediately with pure metal and does not require subsequent annealing.
There are many applications for this kind of technology. But microelectronics and the creation of metamaterials with unusual properties are the first to come to mind. Printing with such precision will help create the finest connections and even use organic materials in electronics. In the case of metamaterials, the combination of metals can lead to materials with interesting mechanical properties, such as being both flexible and strong.
Source: 3dnews.ru