Printing of organic and inorganic nanomaterials using electrospray ionization and Coulomb-force-directed assembly

This letter reports on an additive printing process to deposit organic and inorganic nanomaterials onto desired areas on a surface. The process combines electrospray ionization with Coulomb-force-directed assembly. Electrospray ionization is used to bring the desired nanomaterial into the gas phase while carrier gas, global, and localized electric fields are used to deposit the material onto desired locations on a substrate. Albumin fluorescein isothiocyanate bovine, avidin sulforhodamine, and gold colloids were sprayed from an aqueous solution and patterned with a resolution as high as 100 nm.