Applications Of 3D Printing in Nanotechnology

Today we are immersed in the world of micro and nano-scales, and how 3D printing is contributing to the development of microtechnology and nanotechnology.

It is the technology that allows us to manufacture things in the nanometer scale (nm and HM). A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (there is nothing). To give us an idea, in a nanometer fit between 3 and five atoms. The nanometer is the limit measurement of reduction to which we can get as far as material objects are concerned.

It is the technology that allows us to manufacture things in the micron scale (also called micron). A micron is one millionth of a meter. This is the scale used to build small devices such as memories, logic and computing circuits. As a general rule, when we think about all the electronic functions that we have on hand thanks to our mobile phones, we do not usually realize that all this exists thanks to nano and microtechnology.

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The demand in recent years of increasingly smaller devices has been growing exponentially, for applications such as minimotors, microsatellites, medical microimplants and methods for non-invasive surgery, microrobots, etc. The list is very long and each element equal or more interesting than the previous one.

For the development of these technological advances, and even more taking into account this tendency towards progressive miniaturization, 3D printing is proving to be a very powerful tool. The reason is the development of different methods with 3D printing that are allowing work at reduced scales to micro and nano dimensions to allow such important applications as bionics, microelectronics, microchip printing, microfluidic devices, scaffolding for engineering tissues, or devices for the release of drugs.

All of them have already become essential and everyday applications that we can find practically in all the technology that surrounds us and that we use every day. And every day surprises us with new contributions.

For some time now, the company Nanoscribe has been able to apply stereolithography (one of the additive manufacturing techniques) to the nanoscopic world. We are talking about resolutions less than 100 microns and with a very high quality. This system was called GT Professional Photonic System and is now commercially available, offering not only an unimaginable printing resolution but also a high speed.

Thanks to a polymer printing system based on a laser (addressed by means of a system of mobile mirrors) it is possible to print in seconds high complexity figures in nanometric scale sizes with a high final quality. The technology used for nanoscale 3D printing has been baptized as two-photon polymerization or two-photon lithography.

Well, if you thought that all this is very "cool" but has no applications in real life, you're wrong, and a lot. For a long time nanotechnology has gotten into the box of "things of the future" but, nevertheless, now it is in almost all the things we use, as it happens with nanofabrication on a commercial level. The ability of 3D printing for nanoscale photonic welding has led, for example, to a large transformation of computers to avoid bottlenecks in data centers.

On the other hand, biotechnology at the nanoscopic level facilitates the controlled growth of living cells of all kinds. It is also giving rise to the creation of new materials with very precise characteristics and qualities, such as the addable fabric of the Spiderman suit, to give an example that we can all easily imagine and recognize.

Another important application is the creation of nanofluidic filters inside channels of only one micrometer wide, and even the creation of nanofluidic circuits. In order for scientists to easily access this technology, which handles such extremely small scales, it has been necessary to create specific software such as Nanowrite, Nanoslicer or DeScribe, similar to those used with any desktop printer but that allow any professional can mount a "Nanolaboratorio" relatively easily.

The latest advances in this field comes from researchers from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPLF), who have managed to print nanoscale sensors in 3D, thus improving atomic microscopes. These sensors greatly improve the sensitivity and detection speed of microscopes. Because the sensor needs to detect movements smaller than an atom, that's why special techniques are needed.

Explained in more detail: On a substrate, a precursor gas containing platinum atoms (with a very high conductivity) and carbon atoms is distributed in a vacuum. Then, an electron beam is applied, and then the platinum atoms gather to form nanoparticles, and the carbon atoms naturally generate a matrix that surrounds them. By repeating this process, sensors can be built with any thickness or shape that you want. This new technique can have very broad applications, ranging from biosensors, sensors for the ABS of cars to touch sensors in flexible membranes such as prosthetics or artificial skin.