Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.

University of Massachusetts

Indium Corporation of America

Safi-tech, Inc.

Ian Tevis

Martin Thuo

Christophe Frankiewicz

Jiahao Chen

Darin Heisterkamp

Chris Frankiewicz

Stephanie Oyola-Reynoso

Dana Drochner

A method of direct printing or writing of a metallic material involves depositing, with a printing device or writing device, an ink comprising of at least undercooled liquid metallic particles dispersed in a carrier fluid. The ink is deposited on any substrate surface to deposit the undercooled liquid metal particles thereon as one or more layers that can form a desired pattern or layered structure.

Direct printing and writing using undercooled metallic core-shell particles

A material includes a plurality of supercooled micro-capsules each including a metallic core in a liquid state at a temperature below a solidification temperature of the metallic core and further includes a metallic shell surrounding each respective metallic core. A plurality of alloyed metallic particles and flux are mixed with the plurality of supercooled micro-capsules to form a solder paste. Upon heating the solder paste, the plurality of alloyed particles melt. As the metallic shells destabilize, the liquid metallic cores interdiffuse with the melted alloyed particles forming a new alloy that has a higher melting temperature than the melting temperature of the alloyed metallic particles.

Solder materials including supercooled micro-capsules and alloyed particles

A droplet comprises a core including an alloy comprising a majority of a first metallic element and a minority of a second element, wherein the core is in a liquid state below a solidus temperature of the alloy. A shell is arranged to enclose the core and includes an exterior surface comprising a majority of the second element and a minority of the first metallic element, wherein the shell is in a solid state below the solidus temperature of the alloy. The alloy can comprise a solder material that can be used to form solder connections below a solidus temperature of the alloy.

Undercooled liquid metallic droplets having a protective shell

Undercooled liquid metallic core-shell particles, whose core is stable against solidification at ambient conditions, i.e. under near ambient temperature and pressure conditions, are used to join or repair metallic non-particulate components. The undercooled-shell particles in the form of nano-size or micro-size particles comprise an undercooled stable liquid metallic core encapsulated inside an outer shell, which can comprise an oxide or other stabilizer shell typically formed in-situ on the undercooled liquid metallic core. The shell is ruptured to release the liquid phase core material to join or repair a component(s).

Stable undercooled metallic particles for filling a void

A system and method are presented for producing metallic core-shell particles. The system includes the housing having a hollow interior configured to receive and hold a molten metal input, a carrier fluid, and one or more reagents. The system also includes a shearing assembly positioned within the hollow interior of the housing. The shearing assembly is configured to, when the molten metal input, carrier fluid, and one or more reagents are held withing hollow interior and sealed within housing, shear the molten metal input into particles of an effective size so that a shell created on a surface of the particles via reaction with the one or more reagents prevents a core of the particles from solidifying when the particles are cooled to a temperature below a freezing temperature of the molten metal input.

System and method for manufacture of undercooled metallic core-shell particles

A system and method are presented for producing solder paste having undercooled metallic core-shell particles. In one or more arrangements, the system includes a reconstitution assembly, a dispenser assembly, and a mixer, among other components. The reconstitution assembly is configured to place the cores of the solid core metallic core-shell particles into an undercooled liquid state to form a plurality of undercooled metallic core-shell particles. The dispenser assembly is configured to dispense one or more of a set of available flux components. The mixer assembly is configured to mix the one or more of the set of flux components dispensed by the dispenser assembly with the plurality of undercooled metallic core-shell particles formed by the reconstitution assembly to form a solder paste.

Solder paste on demand apparatus

Stable undercooled metallic particles for engineering at ambient conditions

According to various aspects and embodiments, materials having a modified surface to increase hydrophobicity and methods of making the same are disclosed. In accordance with one or more aspects, a method of enhancing a surface of a substrate may comprise bonding silane monomers onto the surface of the substrate, and polymerizing the silane monomers to form surface-attached hydrophobic particles comprising silane polymers.

Fabrication of micro- and nano-particle coated materials

A method of preparing an ultra-flat metal surface involves providing a layer of a crystalline metallic material on an ultra-flat substrate surface that is relatively harder than the metallic material layer and then impinging the metallic material layer with incoming metal atoms that are deposited as an additive crystalline layer thereon, wherein at least a lattice constant of the additive crystalline layer is different enough from a lattice constant of the crystalline metallic material layer resulting in a reduction of roughness of the surface of the metallic material layer adjacent to the substrate surface. The metallic material layer having an ultra-flat surface then is separated by template stripping or other technique from the substrate surface for further use of the ultra-flat surface.

Method of preparing metal surfaces

Metal nanomaterials and nanostructures may be formed via shearing force in the presence of a reactant.

High aspect ratio nanostructures and methods of preparation

According to various aspects and embodiments, core-shell particles and methods of making the same are disclosed. The core-shell particles may include a liquid metal core, at least one layer of inorganic material surrounding the liquid metal core, and at least one layer of organic material attached to the at least one layer of inorganic material.

Core-shell multi-layer particles

A method of making a multilayer metal particle having an irregular surface architecture includes introducing a molten eutectic metal alloy into a solution to produce a eutectic-solvent mixture, shearing the eutectic-solvent mixture for a sufficient period of time to induce surface tension driven phase segregation in the molten eutectic metal alloy to produce an irregular surface architecture on the eutectic metal alloy, allowing the molten eutectic metal alloy to precipitate to produce a plurality of particles, allowing the plurality of particles to oxidize in the presence of an oxidizer, and functionalizing the particles with an organic species to form an organic layer to produce a multilayer metal particle having an irregular surface architecture.

Growing community of inventors

Ames, IA, United States of America

Ian Tevis