Maxim Shusteff

Ultralight, ultrastiff mechanical metamaterials

Microlattices make marvelous materials Framework or lattice structures can be remarkably strong despite their very low density. Using a very precise technique known as projection microstereolithography, Zheng et al. fabricated octet microlattices from polymers, metals, and ceramics. The design of the lattices meant that the individual struts making up the materials did not bend under pressure. The materials were therefore exceptionally stiff, strong, and lightweight. Science, this issue p. 1373 Ultralow-density materials that deform through tension or compression rather than bending show much higher stiffness. The mechanical properties of ordinary materials degrade substantially with reduced density because their structural elements bend under applied load. We report a class of microarchitected materials that maintain a nearly constant stiffness per unit mass density, even at ultralow density. This performance derives from a network of nearly isotropic microscale unit cells with high structural connectivity and nanoscale features, whose structural members are designed to carry loads in tension or compression. Production of these microlattices, with polymers, metals, or ceramics as constituent materials, is made possible by projection microstereolithography (an additive micromanufacturing technique) combined with nanoscale coating and postprocessing. We found that these materials exhibit ultrastiff properties across more than three orders of magnitude in density, regardless of the constituent material.

Performance Evaluation of Fast Microfluidic Thermal Lysis of Bacteria for Diagnostic Sample Preparation

Development of new diagnostic platforms that incorporate lab-on-a-chip technologies for portable assays is driving the need for rapid, simple, low cost methods to prepare samples for downstream processing or detection. An important component of the sample preparation process is cell lysis. In this work, a simple microfluidic thermal lysis device is used to quickly release intracellular nucleic acids and proteins without the need for additional reagents or beads used in traditional chemical or mechanical methods (e.g., chaotropic salts or bead beating). On-chip lysis is demonstrated in a multi-turn serpentine microchannel with external temperature control via an attached resistive heater. Lysis was confirmed for Escherichia coli by fluorescent viability assay, release of ATP measured with bioluminescent assay, release of DNA measured by fluorometry and qPCR, as well as bacterial culture. Results comparable to standard lysis techniques were achievable at temperatures greater than 65 °C and heating durations between 1 and 60 s.

Microfluidic-Based Amplification-Free Bacterial DNA Detection by Dielectrophoretic Concentration and Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer Assisted in Situ Hybridization (FRET-ISH)

Although real-time PCR (RT-PCR) has become a diagnostic standard for rapid identification of bacterial species, typical methods remain time-intensive due to sample preparation and amplification cycle times. The assay described in this work incorporates on-chip dielectrophoretic capture and concentration of bacterial cells, thermal lysis, cell permeabilization, and nucleic acid denaturation and fluorescence resonance energy transfer assisted in situ hybridization (FRET-ISH) species identification. Combining these techniques leverages the benefits of all of them, allowing identification to be accomplished completely on chip less than thirty minutes after receipt of sample, compared to multiple hours required by traditional RT-PCR and its requisite sample preparation.

Microreactor flow synthesis of the secondary high explosive 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide (LLM-105)

The secondary high explosive 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide, or LLM-105, has been synthesized using a commercially available flow microreactor system. Investigations focused on optimizing flow nitration conditions of the cost effective 2,6-diaminopyrazine-1-oxide (DAPO) in order to test the feasibility and viability of flow nitration as a means for the continuous synthesis of LLM-105. The typical benefits of microreactor flow synthesis including safety, tight temperature control, decreased reaction time, and improved product purity all appear to be highly relevant in the synthesis of LLM-105. However, the process does not provide any gains in yield, as the typical 50–60% yields are equivalent to the batch process. A key factor in producing pure LLM-105 lies in the ability to eliminate any acid inclusions in the final crystalline material through both a controlled quench and recrystallization. The optimized flow nitration conditions, multigram scale-up results, analyses of sample purity, and quenching conditions for purity and crystal morphology are reported.

Computed axial lithography: volumetric 3D printing of arbitrary geometries (Conference Presentation)

Lower-dimensional photopolymerization based additive manufacturing techniques have several drawbacks that currently limit the applicability and scope of 3D printing, including: topological constraints, the requirement for numerous complex support structures that later need to be removed, long print times for complex geometries, relative motion between the liquid resin and printed part, as well as debilitating mechanical weakness and anisotropy resulting from the inherently layered structure of the parts. We propose and demonstrate a novel volumetric 3D printing technique based on one of the most ubiquitous computational imaging methods in the field: computed axial tomography. Computed axial lithography (CAL) is a vat photopolymerization technique that exposes the entire resin volume by projecting images from a multiplicity of angles. The technique is a physical implementation of the filtered back projection algorithm for tomographic reconstruction. We use constrained non-convex optimization in order to generate images that are projected into the resin in order to sculpt a 3-dimensional energy dose that cures the desired arbitrary geometry. This eliminates the requirement for supports and enables complex and nested structures that were previously challenging or impossible to print. Further, the process is layer-less and does not involve any relative motion between the resin and the printed part, which has positive implications for mechanically isotropic part strength. We demonstrate support-less printing of complex geometries containing 10^8-10^9 voxels in 2-4 minutes, orders of magnitude faster than comparable techniques.

Using stroboscopic flow imaging to validate large-scale computational fluid dynamics simulations

The utility and accuracy of computational modeling often requires direct validation against experimental measurements. The work presented here is motivated by taking a combined experimental and computational approach to determine the ability of large-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to understand and predict the dynamics of circulating tumor cells in clinically relevant environments. We use stroboscopic light sheet fluorescence imaging to track the paths and measure the velocities of fluorescent microspheres throughout a human aorta model. Performed over complex physiologicallyrealistic 3D geometries, large data sets are acquired with microscopic resolution over macroscopic distances.

Planar microparticle assembly and photopolymerized joining with holographic optical tweezers

Holographic optical tweezers are able to assemble and permanently join polystyrene microspheres into planar patterns using an acrylamide-based photopolymerization reaction. This approach holds potential as a new method for additive fabrication of multi-material microstructures.

Lightweight micro lattices with nanoscale features fabricated from Projection Microstereolithography

Complex, three-dimensional lightweight cellular materials inspired by nature, such as honeycomb and foamlike structures are desirable for a broad array of applications such as structural components, catalysts supports and energy efficient materials. Additionally, when designed with interconnected porosity, the open volume in the architecture can be exploited for active cooling or energy storage, providing unique opportunities for multifunctionality. However, they are extremely difficult to fabricate with the current state-of-the-art fabrication techniques. This paper reports the fabrication of complex, three-dimensional cellular materials with nanoscale features using a novel additive manufacturing approach, namely Projection Microstereolithography (PμSL).