Open Access

ARTICLE

An Analysis of the Stretching Mechanism of a Liquid Bridge in Typical Problems of Dip-Pen Nanolithography By Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Cheng Zhang^{1, *}, Mingge Wu¹

1 College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325035, China.

* Corresponding Author: Cheng Zhang. Email: .

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: EFD and Heat Transfer)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2019, 15(4), 459-469. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2019.08477

Abstract

A computational study of the stretching mechanism of a liquid bridge and the effect of the liquid properties on the DPN (dip-pen nanolithography) process is presented. The results show that the viscosity and contact angle can have an appreciable influence on these processes. The greater the viscosity, the harder the liquid bridge is to break, which allows more molecular transfer during the DPN spotting process. Besides, when the contact angle between the liquid and substrate is less than 60 degrees, the time required to stretch the bridge and break it grows with the contact angle. During the stretching process, the pressure in the midsection (along the vertical direction) of the liquid bridge is relatively unstable, with frequent changes in its value. Furthermore, this pressure increases sharply when the liquid bridge breaks.

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