Aerosol jet printing of selective molecular inks for patterning of 2D MoS₂

Date of Award

2017

Degree Name

M.S. in Materials Engineering

Department

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

Advisor/Chair

Advisor: Christopher Muratore

Abstract

In recent years, two dimensional (2D) materials such as Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS₂) have been theoretically proven to exhibit unique properties such as extreme mechanical flexibility, high electron mobility properties, and large tunable band gaps. If created, 2D materials have the potential of revolutionizing the flexible electronics market. Unfortunately, mechanical or chemical exfoliation and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have been unable to synthesize a large area, defect-free film. This work examines a new method of fabricating a film of 2D MoS₂ using additive manufacturing. Instead of printing MoS₂-based inks directly, this study uses aerosol jet printing of self-assembling peptides to bond to high quality 2D flakes via selective molecular attachment, thereby creating a film of MoS₂. This technique poses several advantages to direct printing with particle-based inks, such as overcoming nozzle clogging due to nanomaterial aggregation and decoupling of particle size from printer nozzle diameter. Specifically, we developed an optimized process for maximizing the amount of MoS₂ flakes on a surface, based on a series of Design of Experiments (DoE) methods used to characterize the binding interactions between the substrate, peptide, solvents, and MoS₂ flakes. The proposed procedure minimized the overall variability for MoS₂ film fabrication and increased robustness against film stress.

Keywords

Molybdenum disulfide, Thin films Design and construction, Materials Science, two dimensional materials

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2017, author

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