Rheology behaviors of stable electrohydrodynamic direct-write jet

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic direct-write (EDW) is a novel direct-write technology to fabricate micro/nano-structures from viscoelastic solution, which had displayed great application potential in organic electronic device. Due to the shorter spinneret to substrate distance, the rheology behaviors of EDW charged jet played an important role in defining the line width or diameter of the direct-written micro/nano-structures. High speed camera is utilized to observe the rheology process of EDW charged jet, and solidified jets are measured by SEM that offers a quantitative method to investigate the diameter evolution of jet. The diameter of charged jet and nanofiber injected from solid probe increase with the increasing of polymer solution concentration. Attribute to the larger diameter and higher solvent content, charged jet injected from hollow nozzle displayed greater fluid viscoelasticity, and then stretched into micro structure of flat film under the gravitation on the substrate. The diameter of charged jet and line width of thin film injected from nozzle decrease with the increasing of polymer concentration.