With an accout for my.chemeurope.com you can always see everything at a glance – and you can configure your own website and individual newsletter.

To use all functions of this page, please activate cookies in your browser.

Photograph of a tetrakaidecahedron lattice structure.

Because of its outstanding transparency as well as its stability in contact with heat or chemicals, glass is relevant for many high-tech applications. However, conventional processes for shaping glass are often tedious, energy-intensive and quickly reach their limits for small and complicated components. The Freiburg materials scientists Dr. Frederik Kotz-Helmer and Prof. Dr. Bastian E. Rapp, in cooperation with the University of California at Berkeley in the US, have developed a novel process that can be used to produce very small components from transparent glass quickly and precisely using micro 3D printing. Possible applications include components for sensors and microscopes, but also for lab-on-a-chip systems. The researchers were able to publish their results in the current issue of the journal Science.

The new technology is based on so-called Glassomer materials, which Kotz-Helmer and Rapp developed at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg. “Glassomer materials consist of glass powder in a special plastic binder,” says Kotz-Helmer, “allowing to process glass like a plastic.” The resulting components are then placed in a furnace, which causes the plastic to burn and the glass to be sintered, i.e. densified. “In the end, the components consist of one hundred percent highly transparent fused silica glass,” says Kotz-Helmer.

The Freiburg scientists have now combined Glassomer materials with a new 3D printing process developed by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Hayden Taylor from the University of California, Berkeley. Conventional 3D printers print their objects layer by layer. However, in the new process, called Computed Axial Lithography (CAL), the component is created in a single step. A vessel containing liquid, light-sensitive material is exposed to two-dimensional light images of the object to be printed from many different angles. Where the images overlap and the amount of light absorbed thus locally exceeds a certain threshold, the material hardens abruptly - within a few minutes, the component is formed. The excess, still liquid material can be washed off.

“In principle, this process also works with Glassomer material,” says Kotz-Helmer. For this purpose, the Freiburg scientists developed a material made of glass powder and plastic that is both highly transparent and hardens quickly at a suitable threshold value. “The devil was in the chemical details here,” says the materials scientist. Previously, moreover, the CAL process had only been suitable for relatively coarse structures. By combining the materials science expertise at the University of Freiburg and the project partner Glassomer GmbH, a Freiburg spin-off, as well as the further development of the system technology at the University of California, it has now been possible to combine and improve these technologies. “For the first time, we were able to print glass with structures in the range of 50 micrometers in just a few minutes, which corresponds roughly to the thickness of a hair,” says Kotz-Helmer. “In addition, the surfaces of the components are smoother than with conventional 3D printing processes.”

Kotz-Helmer sees possible applications for the innovative manufacturing process, for example, in micro-optical components of sensors, virtual reality headsets and modern microscopes: "The ability to manufacture such components at high speed and with great geometric freedom will enable new functions and more cost-effective products in the future."

Microfluidic channels are also needed for so-called lab-on-a-chip systems for research and medical diagnostics. Until now, these have mostly been made of plastics, but they often cannot withstand high temperatures and aggressive chemicals. Thanks to the new process technology, complex channel systems can now be manufactured in glass, says Kotz-Helmer: "Thanks to the thermal and chemical stability of glass, many new fields of application are opening up, especially in the area of chemistry on-a-chip synthesis."

You are currently not logged in to my.chemeurope.com . Your changes will in fact be stored however can be lost at all times.

My notice: Add / edit notice

my watchlist Cancel Save notice

Scientist Discovers New Oxidation State of Rhodium

Mayara da Silva Santos, doctoral candidate at the University of Freiburg’s Institute of Physics, has discovered a new oxidation state of rhodium. This chemical element is one of the most catalytically important platinum-group metals and is used, for example, in catalytic converters for auto ... more

Important milestone on the way to transition metal catalysis with aluminum

The chemists Philipp Dabringhaus, Julie Willrett and Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing from the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Freiburg have succeeded in synthesizing the low-valent cationic aluminum complex [Al(AlCp*)3]+ by a metathesis reaction. The team presen ... more

Chemists develop new reagent for deelectronation

Chemists from Freiburg have succeeded in converting polynuclear transition metal carbonyls into their homoleptic complex cations using typical inorganic oxidants. In their work, the research team of Malte Sellin, Christian Friedmann and Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing from the Institute of Inorgani ... more

A simple, cheap material for carbon capture, perhaps from tailpipes

Using an inexpensive polymer called melamine — the main component of Formica — chemists have created a cheap, easy and energy-efficient way to capture carbon dioxide from smokestacks, a key goal for the United States and other nations as they seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The pro ... more

How sugar-loving microbes could help power future cars

It sounds like modern-day alchemy: Transforming sugar into hydrocarbons found in gasoline. But that’s exactly what scientists have done. In a study in Nature Chemistry, researchers report harnessing the wonders of biology and chemistry to turn glucose (a type of sugar) into olefins (a type ... more

Protons in aqueous solution can usually migrate very quickly – much faster compared to other ions. However, this only applies when they are in a space greater than two nanometers, as a study from Ruhr University-Bochum and the University of California Berkeley shows. In confined spaces the ... more

Glass is ubiquitous, from high-tech products in the fields of optics, telecommunications, chemistry and medicine to everyday objects such as bottles and windows. However, shaping glass is mainly based on processes such as melting, grinding or etching. These processes are decades old, techno ... more

Structuring of glass is challenging and usually requires high temperatures to shape a glass melt or aggressive chemicals for etching of microstructures. Glassomer is a silica nanocomposite which comes as a liquid or a solid. As a liquid Glassomer (e.g. Glassomer L50) can be structured by ro ... more

Read what you need to know about our industry portal chemeurope.com.

Find out more about the company LUMITOS and our team.

Find out how LUMITOS supports you with online marketing.

© 1997-2022 LUMITOS AG, All rights reserved