Nanoprinting with Nanoparticles: Concept of a Novel Inkjet Printer with Possible Applications in Invisible Tagging of Objects

Abstract

Water‐soluble ferrofluids typically have ferrofluid grains ≤20 nm or so in diameter. We argue that one maybe able to use a single liquid coated ferrofluid grain as an “ink drop” of a hypothetical inkjet printer. Such fine scale drops may not be best suited for the desktop inkjet printer but may find a niche in other applications such as in tagging commodities to be protected from easy counterfeiting.

^#Based on an Invited Talk presented at the Particles 2003 Conference in Toronto, Canada, August 23–26, 2003.

Keywords:

• Nanoprinting
• Inkjet printer
• Invisible tagging
• Solitary waves
• Grain ejection

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Professor Nasser Ashgriz of the University of Toronto for introducing me to ferrofluids some 6 years ago. Numerous helpful discussions with Professor John Ho of SUNY‐Buffalo, Professor Daniel Pusiol of The National University of Cordoba, Argentina and Professor Sara Majetich of Carnegie‐Mellon University are gratefully acknowledged. I acknowledge my former students, Felicia Manciu and Marian Manciu for performing the calculations reported here under my supervision. The research has been partially supported by NSF‐CMS‐0070055 and by Sandia National Laboratories under contract no. DE‐AC04‐94AL‐85000.

Notes

^#Based on an Invited Talk presented at the Particles 2003 Conference in Toronto, Canada, August 23–26, 2003.