Patent Application
20190371502
The present disclosure relates to magnetic adhesion and, more particularly, to a method of providing virtual adhesion of materials to surfaces prior to encapsulation.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. They have unusual properties, such as exceptional strength and stiffness and are thus valuable in various fields including, but not limited to, nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science and technology.
Making use of CNTs in one or more technological fields often requires that they be secured to a substrate formed of inorganic materials. Current processes for securing or adhering CNTs to inorganic substrates are often problematic, however, since adhesion typically requires the use of epoxies, gels or chemical adhesives. In these cases, contaminates are introduced into the system which can inhibit or degrade the performance of further processing and ultimately weaken or rendered usless the resulting structure. Other adhesion techniques make use of Van der Waals forces or electrostatic attraction but are usually insufficiently strong to hold the CNTs in place.
According to one embodiment, a virtual adhesion method is provided. The virtual adhesion method includes increasing a magnetic characteristic of an initial structure, supporting the initial structure on a surface of a substrate, generating a magnetic field directed such that the initial structure is forced toward the surface of the substrate and forming an encapsulation, which is bound to exposed portions of the surface, around the initial structure.
According to another embodiment, a virtual adhesion method is provided and includes coating an initial structure with magnetic particles to form a magnetic particle coating on the initial structure, supporting the initial structure with the magnetic particle coating on a surface of a substrate, generating a magnetic field directed such that the magnetic particles of the magnetic particle coating are forced toward the surface of the substrate and forming an encapsulation, which is bound to exposed portions of the surface, around the initial structure with the magnetic particle coating.
According to yet another embodiment, a non-metallic element encapsulation is provided and includes an inorganic and non-metallic substrate, a non-magnetic element, a magnetic particle coating disposed to coat the non-metallic element and an inorganic and non-metallic encapsulation disposed about and in direct contact with the magnetic particle coating to secure the non-magnetic element with the magnetic particle coating to a surface of the inorganic and non-metallic substrate.
Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention. For a better understanding of the invention with the advantages and the features, refer to the description and to the drawings.
For a more complete understanding of this disclosure, reference is now made to the following brief description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and detailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts:
As will be described below, a virtual adhesion method is provided and allows for the transferring and temporary affixing of structures to a surface before the structures are encased by a protective layer. The virtual adhesion method avoids the use of glues or binders which can adversely impact surface properties to accomplish temporary adhesion of the structures to the surface.
With reference to
As shown in
While the magnetic particles can be coated onto or integrated into the initial structure 10, the following description will generally relate to the case of the magnetic particles being coated onto the exterior surface 13 of the initial structure 10. This is being done for clarity and brevity and is not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the claims or the application as a whole.
The method further includes supporting the initial structure 10 with the magnetic particle coating 20 on a surface 301 of a substrate 30 (block 102 of
In accordance with embodiments, the generating of the magnetic field B may be achieved by disposing the substrate 30 on a permanent-magnet or on an electro-magnet to which a current is applied.
In either case, the generating of the magnetic field B may include generating the magnetic field B to have a magnitude which is sufficient to constrain the initial structure 10 with the magnetic particle coating 20 on the surface 301 and generating the magnetic field B to have a magnitude which is insufficient to dislodge the magnetic particle coating 20 from the initial structure 10.
With the initial structure 10 with the magnetic particle coating 20 securely retained on the surface 301 of the substrate 30, the method also includes forming an encapsulation 40, which is bound to exposed portions of the surface 301, around the initial structure 10 with the magnetic particle coating 20 (block 104 of
The encapsulation 40 may be formed as a result of at least one of sputtering processes, evaporation processes, liquid drying processes and/or other suitable processes and may, but does not need to, exhibit a seam feature running along the original surface 301.
Since the encapsulation 40 is formed about the initial structure 10 with the magnetic particle coating 20, the resulting structure 50 includes the initial structure 10 provided as a non-magnetic element, the magnetic particle coating 20 disposed to coat the non-metallic element and an inorganic and non-metallic encapsulation 40 disposed about and in direct contact with the magnetic particle coating 20. Thus, the resulting structure 50 is characterized in that the interior surface of the encapsulation 40 directly contacts the exterior surface of the magnetic particle coating 20, in that the magnetic particle coating 20 can have but does not need to have any further structural or functional purpose and in that the resulting structure 50 has an absence of adhesives, glues, resins or epoxies between interior surface of the encapsulation 40 and the exterior surface of the magnetic particle coating 20 and the surface 301.
With continued reference to
In accordance with further embodiments and with reference to
With reference to
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
While the preferred embodiments to the invention have been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
