Nanoimprinting and Sustainability

A special issue of Nanomanufacturing (ISSN 2673-687X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 2865

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Functional Surfaces and Nanostructures, Profactor GmbH, Steyr-Gleink, Austria
Interests: nanoimprint lithography; additive micro-and nanomanufacturing; applications of nanoimprinting from optics to life sciences
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Brundtland Report (“Our Common Future”) from 1987 (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf) defines sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Sustainability comprises three dimensions: environmental, economic and social. There is often a focus on environmental topics, especially in the context of the global climate and biodiversity crisis. The UN defined the 17 well-known Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals), which address all three pillars of sustainability.

As scientists, researchers and engineers, we are working on topics which will influence the future; therefore, sustainability has to be an important aspect of our work.

Nanoimprinting has several key features which makes it very interesting for a broad range of applications, both in industry and research. It facilitates the replication of micro- and nanoscale features in a fast and cost-efficient process, allows the direct (additive) patterning of functional materials and can also be applied on complex and curved surfaces. Many applications that are realized with nanoimprinting already address sustainability aspects such as antireflective structures for photovoltaics or antifouling structures for ships. On the other hand, nanoimprinting itself can be a process which is run in a sustainable, energy- and resource-efficient way, potentially using materials from renewable sources.

This Special Issue aims to collect contributions dealing with the sustainability of nanoimprinting itself as well as with research and applications with a clear sustainability aspect that have been realized using nanoimprinting. It hopes to stimulate discussions and research for a more sustainable future.

Dr. Michael Mühlberger
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomanufacturing is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nanoimprint lithography
  • nanoimprinting
  • sustainability
  • sustainable micro- and nanopatterning processes
  • nanoimprint-based applications for sustainability

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 11718 KiB  
Article
UV Nanoimprint Lithography—Impact of Coating Techniques on Pattern Quality
by Johanna Rimböck, Patrick Schuster, Lisa Vsetecka and Christine Thanner
Nanomanufacturing 2024, 4(1), 69-80; https://doi.org/10.3390/nanomanufacturing4010005 - 14 Mar 2024
Viewed by 697
Abstract
In this work, three different coating techniques are compared and their applicability for ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is investigated. As UV-NIL is considered a suitable volume manufacturing production solution for various emerging applications, it is mandatory to consider environmental aspects such as operational [...] Read more.
In this work, three different coating techniques are compared and their applicability for ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is investigated. As UV-NIL is considered a suitable volume manufacturing production solution for various emerging applications, it is mandatory to consider environmental aspects such as operational energy use and material consumption as well as waste management. In this paper, spin coating, spray coating, and inkjet coating are used to coat both a high refractive index resin (n = 1.9) and a filler-free resin (n = 1.5), respectively. Variable Angle Spectroscopy Ellipsometry (VASE) was used to analyze the influence of different process parameters on the resin thickness as well as to compare the refractive index achieved from each coating technology. Finally, the applicability of the different coating methods for UV-NIL was investigated by imprinting the resin layers with different test structures. For the final imprints, the resolution, the surface roughness, and the pattern fidelity over 25 imprints was assessed using AFM. Finally, a comparison of the resin consumption and the process time was performed for each coating method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoimprinting and Sustainability)
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18 pages, 12824 KiB  
Article
Nanoimprinted Hierarchical Micro-/Nanostructured Substrates for the Growth of Cardiomyocyte Fibers
by Michael M. Mühlberger, Sonja Kopp, Alison A. Deyett, Markus Pribyl, Michael J. Haslinger, Anica M. Siegel, Philipp Taus, Elena Guillén, Aranxa Torres-Caballero, Bozhidar Baltov, Michael A. Netzer, Sonia Prado-López, Leif Yde, Jan Stensborg, Sasha Mendjan, Steffen Hering and Heinz D. Wanzenboeck
Nanomanufacturing 2023, 3(4), 416-433; https://doi.org/10.3390/nanomanufacturing3040026 - 07 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1385
Abstract
Investigating the behavior of cardiomyocytes is an important part of drug development. We present a structure and a related nanoimprint-based fabrication method, where the cardiomyocytes form isolated fibers, which is beneficial for drug testing, more closely representing the structure of the cardiomyocytes in [...] Read more.
Investigating the behavior of cardiomyocytes is an important part of drug development. We present a structure and a related nanoimprint-based fabrication method, where the cardiomyocytes form isolated fibers, which is beneficial for drug testing, more closely representing the structure of the cardiomyocytes in vivo. We found that channel structures with walls with a rough top surface stimulate cardiomyocytes to form such fibers, as desired. Nanoimprint lithography is used as a fast and cost-efficient method to fabricate our hierarchically structured cell growth substrates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoimprinting and Sustainability)
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