High-throughput printing of combinatorial materials from aerosols.

The development of new materials and their compositional and microstructural optimization are essential in regard to next-generation technologies such as clean energy and environmental sustainability. However, materials discovery and optimization have been a frustratingly slow process. The Edisonian trial-and-error process is time consuming and resource inefficient, particularly when contrasted with vast materials design spaces1. Whereas traditional combinatorial deposition methods can generate material libraries2,3, these suffer from limited material options and inability to leverage major breakthroughs in nanomaterial synthesis. Here we report a high-throughput combinatorial printing method capable of fabricating materials with compositional gradients at microscale spatial resolution. In situ mixing and printing in the aerosol phase allows instantaneous tuning of the mixing ratio of a broad range of materials on the fly, which is an important feature unobtainable in conventional multimaterials printing using feedstocks in liquid-liquid or solid-solid phases4-6. We demonstrate a variety of high-throughput printing strategies and applications in combinatorial doping, functional grading and chemical reaction, enabling materials exploration of doped chalcogenides and compositionally graded materials with gradient properties. The ability to combine the top-down design freedom of additive manufacturing with bottom-up control over local material compositions promises the development of compositionally complex materials inaccessible via conventional manufacturing approaches.

Dynamic and Steady Characteristics of Polymer-Ceramic Pressure-Sensitive Paint with Variation in Layer Thickness.

Polymer-ceramic pressure-sensitive paint (PC-PSP) has been investigated as a surface-pressure sensor for unsteady aerodynamics and short duration measurements. This PSP provides a fast response to a change in pressures with a spray-coating ability. Because it is sprayed onto an aerodynamic surface, the thickness of PC-PSP may play an important role in determining the performance of this sensor. The thickness of other fast PSPs, such as anodized aluminum pressure-sensitive paint, is a major factor in determining its performance. We vary the thickness of PC-PSP from 10 to 240 µm in order to study its effects on PSP measurement characteristics including time response, signal level, pressure sensitivity, and temperature dependency. It is found that the thickness does affect these characteristics. However, a thickness over 80 µm provides uniform performance in these characteristics.

Luminophore application study of polymer-ceramic pressure-sensitive paint.

A polymer-ceramic pressure-sensitive paint (PC-PSP) is a fast responding and sprayable PSP which has been applied for capturing global unsteady flows. The luminophore application process is studied to enhance the characterization of the PC-PSP. A dipping deposition method is used to apply a luminophore on a polymer-ceramic coating. The method selects a solvent by its polarity index. The characterization includes the signal level, pressure sensitivity, temperature dependency, and response time. It is found that the luminophore application process affects the steady-state characterizations, such as the signal level, pressure sensitivity, and temperature dependency. A range of change for each characterization, which is based on the minimum quantity, is a factor of 4.7, 9, and 3.8, respectively. A response time on the order of ten microseconds is shown. The application process is not a dominant factor for changing the response time, which is within the uncertainty of the thickness variation. Comparisons of the effects on the luminophore application process and the polymer content are made to discuss the PC-PSP characterization results.