Additive manufacturing of 3D nano-architected metals.

ABSTRACT: Most existing methods for additive manufacturing (AM) of metals are inherently limited to ~20-50??m resolution, which makes them untenable for generating complex 3D-printed metallic structures with smaller features. We developed a lithography-based process to create complex 3D nano-architected metals with ~100?nm resolution. We first synthesize hybrid organic-inorganic materials that contain Ni clusters to produce a metal-rich photoresist, then use two-photon lithography to sculpt 3D polymer scaffolds, and pyrolyze them to volatilize the organics, which produces a >90?wt% Ni-containing architecture. We demonstrate nanolattices with octet geometries, 2??m unit cells and 300-400-nm diameter beams made of 20-nm grained nanocrystalline, nanoporous Ni. Nanomechanical experiments reveal their specific strength to be 2.1-7.2?MPa?g-1?cm3, which is comparable to lattice architectures fabricated using existing metal AM processes. This work demonstrates an efficient pathway to 3D-print micro-architected and nano-architected metals with sub-micron resolution.

SUBMITTER: Vyatskikh A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5807385 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature