• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.589-593
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• 2005

Nanoimprinting lithography (NIL) is known as a suitable technique for fabricating nano and micro structures of high definition. Hot embossing is one of NIL techniques and can imprint on thin films and bulk polymers. Key issues of hot embossing are time and expense needed to produce a stamp withstanding a high temperature and pressure. Fabrication of a metal stamp such as an electroplated nickel is cost intensive and time consuming. A ceramic stamp made by silicon is easy to break when the pressure is applied. In this paper, a plastic stamp using a high temperature epoxy was fabricated and tested. The plastic stamp was relatively inexpensive, rapid to produce and durable enough to withstanding multiple hot embossing cycles. The merits of low viscosity epoxy solutions were a fast degassing and a rapid filling the microstructures. The hot embossing process with plastic stamp was performed on PMMA substrates. The hot embossing was conducted at 12.6 bar, $120^{\circ}C$ and 10 minutes. An imprinted PMMA wafer was almost same value of the plastic stamp after 10 times embossing. Entire fabrication process from silicon master to plastic stamp was completed within 12 hours.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2012

The properties of carbon nanotube-metal hybrid nanostructures are critically dependent on the structure and chemistry of the metal-carbon nanotube interface. In this study, the interface between nickel and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been investigated using physical vapor-deposited (sputter-deposited) nickel onto the surface of freestanding carbon nanotube arrays processed by nano-imprint lithography (NIL). These interfaces have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy and 3D atom probe tomography. In the nickel nanocrystals growing on the CNT surface, a metastable hexagonal $Ni_3C$-types phase appears to be stabilized. The structural stability of the nickel-CNT interface is also discussed and related to potential implications for the properties of these nanocomposites.