Repository logo
 

Nanofabrication of Conductive Metallic Structures on Elastomeric Materials.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Tan, Edward KW 
Rughoobur, Girish 
Rubio-Lara, Juan 

Abstract

Existing techniques for patterning metallic structures on elastomers are limited in terms of resolution, yield and scalability. The primary constraint is the incompatibility of their physical properties with conventional cleanroom techniques. We demonstrate a reliable fabrication strategy to transfer high resolution metallic structures of <500 nm in dimension on elastomers. The proposed method consists of producing a metallic pattern using conventional lithographic techniques on silicon coated with a thin sacrificial aluminium layer. Subsequent wet etching of the sacrificial layer releases the elastomer with the embedded metallic pattern. Using this method, a nano-resistor with minimum feature size of 400 nm is fabricated on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and applied in gas sensing. Adsorption of solvents in the PDMS causes swelling and increases the device resistance, which therefore enables the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Sensitivity to chloroform and toluene vapor with a rapid response (~30 s) and recovery (~200 s) is demonstrated using this PDMS nano-resistor at room temperature.

Description

Keywords

0912 Materials Engineering, Nanotechnology, Bioengineering

Journal Title

Sci Rep

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

8

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K03099X/1)
Technology Strategy Board (103543)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015978/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Research Infrastructures (RI) (685758)