Capillary origami as a new method for printing nanoparticles on 3D surfaces

Abstract

We introduce capillary origami as a new method to print nanoparticles on curved, three dimensional polymer surfaces. When a liquid droplet containing nanoparticles is placed on a thin PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) membrane, as the droplet evaporates, it folds the surface and leaves nanoparticles on it. We produced curved surfaces covered with a layer of magnetic iron-oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles with this method. These coated surfaces can be moved in a magnetic field.