Roll-to-roll fabrication of superhydrophobic pads covered with nanofur for the efficient clean-up of oil spills

• Patrick Weiser,
• Robin Kietz,
• Marc Schneider,
• Matthias Worgull and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1228–1239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.102

• . These are well-suited for the cleanup of small oil spills. Keywords: hot embossing; lotus effect; nanofur; nanopads; oil spill cleanup; oil water separation; roll-to-roll; R2R; superhydrophobicity; Introduction Self-cleaning surfaces utilizing the famous lotus effect have gained significant importance

• polymeric nanofur, we developed a continuous roll-to-roll (R2R) process. For that, we combine classical film extrusion with roll-to-roll structuring [2][19][20][21][22]. The overall process relies only on tools frequently used in industry, thereby enabling the cost-effective upscaling of nanofur fabrication

• square centimeters since hot embossing is a serial process [18]. In the view of commercial applications, however, a continuous process is highly desirable. As demonstrated here, the continuous fabrication of superhydrophobic nanofur is possible in a roll-to-roll (R2R) process. Figure 1 outlines the two

Optimisation of purification techniques for the preparation of large-volume aqueous solar nanoparticle inks for organic photovoltaics

• Furqan Almyahi,
• Thomas R. Andersen,
• Nathan A. Cooling,
• Natalie P. Holmes,
• Matthew J. Griffith,
• Krishna Feron,
• Xiaojing Zhou,
• Warwick J. Belcher and
• Paul C. Dastoor

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 649–659, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.60

• : aqueous nanoparticle; crossflow ultrafiltration; miniemulsion; organic photovoltaic; SDS surfactant; surface tension; Introduction Organic photovoltaics (OPV) are a promising energy technology that utilizes large-scale roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication techniques (such as slot-die coating, flexographical

• printing and screen printing) for high-speed production due to the solution-processable nature of the device materials [1][2]. The application of high throughput R2R equipment produces devices which have a short energy payback time and which deliver power at a low levelised cost of electricity [3][4]. In

• common purification method for preparing small-volume ASNP inks [12][15]. However, this technique is not suitable for preparing the large volumes of inks required to fabricate OPV devices on the roll-to-roll (R2R) scale (for instance, to just fill the reservoir of a typical R2R coating head requires 50