EXPLORING THE INKJET PRINTING OF FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS AND THEIR USE IN ENERGETIC SYSTEMS AND SENSING APPLICATIONS

With an eye towards applications such as the selective sensing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or micro-scale thrust generation, inkjet printing was explored as a means to selectively deposit functional materials. The work detailed herein explores a series of fundamental steps to gain expertise related to the piezoelectric inkjet printing of functional materials. The successful printing of nanothermite was demonstrated with two unique printing techniques. Furthermore, the integration of this material with an ignition mechanism was shown to create a fully printed igniter energetic system. These advancements support future work related to the printing of other energetic materials necessary to create tunable reactive systems. This knowledge was then translated into the development of resonant mass sensing devices that are selectively functionalized using inkjet printing. This approach to functionalization allowed for the precise deposition of receptive chemistries on devices resulting in selective, highly-sensitive devices that successfully detected biomarkers secreted after traumatic brain injuries and harmful VOCs. This work implemented oscillator-based sensors to achieve a low-cost, low-power sensor platform with redundant elements. Furthermore, the predictive capabilities of these devices were explored using least squares and linear regression modeling.