Mechanically robust super-oleophobic stamp for direct stamping of silver nanoparticle ink

Direct stamping of functional materials has been developed to reduce the number of processes and cost, and to increase throughput. However, there remain several challenging issues. One of the challenging issues is the residue-remaining problem after direct stamping. This significantly reduces reliability of stamping of micro-patterns and life-span of stamps. Here we present that direct stamping of silver nanoparticle generated conductive pattern with super-oleophobic stamp. A stamp was fabricated with UV-curable urethane rubber modified by perfluorinated silane. A master fabricated by photolithography and Bosch type etching enabled us to obtain a stamp patterned with a 2D array of voids with nano-scale re-entrant walls. And complete residue-free direct stamping of silver nanoparticles onto a glass substrate has been achieved using the stamp for little contact between the silver nanoparticle ink and the stamp was allowed by super-oleophobicity which resulted from the stamp material and pattern.

► Confirmation of super-oleophobic surface with nano-scale re-entrant patterns.
► Fabrication of nano-scale re-entrant sidewalls on an F-urethane stamp.
► Silver nano ink does not stick to the void sidewalls due to super-oleophobicity.
► The super-oleophobic stamp enables complete residue-free direct stamping.