Dielectrophoretic bending of directly printed free-standing ultra-soft nanowires

Electrohydrodynamic printing has shown superior resolution compared to conventional ink-jet printing, but the use of electrically charged liquid commonly leads to unwanted repulsion effects posing a threshold to resolution capabilities. However, a recently demonstrated controlled dripping process of nanoscale, particle-laden droplets, could circumvent such resolution obstacles even on insulating substrates. Here, we show that so-printed free-standing nanostructures can be autonomously deformed, and mechanically characterized due to the presence of the electrified nozzle, or, after voltage termination, due to transient charge residuals on the structures themselves. Dielectrophoretic forces, arising between two subsequently printed nanopillars lead to their contactless bending and to the formation of out-of-plane arc structures arising from the connection of the pillar apexes. Once connected, the ultra-soft nanopillars are found to be tightly merged and could, for example, serve in electronics as out of plane nanobonds. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.