Credit: David Doan & & John KulikowskiStanford product engineers have used 3D printing to develop tens of thousands of hard-to-manufacture nanoparticles, that are anticipated to lead to the development of new products capable of instantly modifying their form.In nanomaterials, shape is destiny. That is, the geometry of the particle in the material defines the physical qualities of the resulting material. More seriously, these materials can shift between states in minutes just by reorganizing the particles into new geometric patterns.This ability to change “phases,” as products engineers refer to the shapeshifting quality, is similar to the atomic rearrangement that turns iron into tempered steel, or in products that permit computers to save terabytes of important information in digital type.”If we can find out to manage these phase shifts in products made of these Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons it could lead in numerous appealing engineering directions,” she said.Elusive preyArchimedean truncated tetrahedrons (ATTs) have actually long been thought to be amongst the most preferable of geometries for producing materials that can quickly change stage, however up until just recently were challenging to produce– predicted in computer system simulations yet challenging to replicate in the genuine world.Gu is quick to point out that her team is not the first to produce nanoscale Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons in amount, but they are amongst the very first, if not the first, to use 3D nanoprinting to do it.”Right now, were working on making these particles magnetic to manage how they behave,” Gu said of her newest research study already underway utilizing Archimedean truncated tetrahedron nanoparticles in brand-new methods.
Optical pictures of truncated tetrahedrons forming several hexagonal grains (top). Bond order analysis reveals different hexagonal grains through different colors (bottom). Surrounding tetrahedrons that have the same color suggest that they have the very same grain orientation. Scale bar is 20 um. Credit: David Doan & & John KulikowskiStanford product engineers have made use of 3D printing to develop tens of countless hard-to-manufacture nanoparticles, that are anticipated to result in the advancement of brand-new products efficient in quickly altering their form.In nanomaterials, shape is destiny. That is, the geometry of the particle in the material specifies the physical attributes of the resulting material.”A crystal made from nano-ball bearings will arrange themselves in a different way than a crystal made of nano-dice and these plans will produce very various physical residential or commercial properties,” stated Wendy Gu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, presenting her most current paper which appears in the journal Nature Communications. “Weve utilized a 3D nanoprinting strategy to produce among the most promising shapes understood– Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons. They are micron-scale tetrahedrons with the tips lopped off.”In the paper, Gu and her co-authors describe how they nanoprinted 10s of thousands of these difficult nanoparticles, stirred them into a service, and then watched as they self-assembled into numerous promising crystal structures. More seriously, these materials can shift between states in minutes merely by rearranging the particles into new geometric patterns.This ability to alter “phases,” as materials engineers refer to the shapeshifting quality, resembles the atomic rearrangement that turns iron into tempered steel, or in materials that enable computer systems to keep terabytes of valuable data in digital type.”If we can learn to manage these phase shifts in materials made of these Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons it might lead in numerous appealing engineering instructions,” she said.Elusive preyArchimedean truncated tetrahedrons (ATTs) have actually long been theorized to be amongst the most desirable of geometries for producing products that can quickly change stage, but until just recently were challenging to fabricate– predicted in computer simulations yet difficult to recreate in the genuine world.Gu is quick to mention that her team is not the very first to produce nanoscale Archimedean truncated tetrahedrons in quantity, however they are amongst the very first, if not the first, to use 3D nanoprinting to do it.”With 3D nanoprinting, we can make nearly any shape we desire. We can control the particle shape extremely carefully,” Gu described. “This specific shape has actually been predicted by simulations to form very fascinating structures. When you can load them together in numerous methods they produce valuable physical residential or commercial properties.”ATTs form a minimum of two extremely desirable geometric structures. The very first is a hexagonal pattern in which the tetrahedrons rest flat on the substrate with their truncated suggestions pointing up like a nanoscale mountain variety. The second is possibly even more appealing, Gu said. It is a crystalline quasi-diamond structure in which the tetrahedrons alternate in upward- and downward-facing orientations, like eggs resting in an egg carton. The diamond arrangement is thought about a “Holy Grail” in the photonics neighborhood and might lead in lots of new and interesting scientific directions.Most importantly, however, when correctly crafted, future products made from 3D printed particles can be rearranged quickly, switching easily backward and forward between stages with the application of an electromagnetic field, electric current, heat, or other engineering method.Gu stated she can imagine finishings for solar panels that change throughout the day to maximize energy efficiency, new-age hydrophobic movies for airplane wings and windows that mean they never ever fog or ice up, or new kinds of computer system memory. The list goes on and on.”Right now, were working on making these particles magnetic to control how they behave,” Gu stated of her latest research study currently underway using Archimedean truncated tetrahedron nanoparticles in brand-new ways. “The possibilities are just starting to be explored.”Reference: “Direct observation of stage transitions in truncated tetrahedral microparticles under quasi-2D confinement” by David Doan, John Kulikowski and X. Wendy Gu, 25 March 2024, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/ s41467-024-46230-xThis work was moneyed by the National Science Foundation, a Stanford Graduate Fellowship. DD, JK, the Hellman Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. Part of this work was carried out at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, and at the Stanford Cell Sciences Imaging Facility.