Rational routes to nanostructures by the kilometre

It's relatively easy to make a couple of copies of some fancy nanostructure over a few microns. But my interest is in nanostructures by the kilometre. Making large-scale master structures containing uniform nanostructures, then replicating them by the kilometre is hard to do but ultimately where the industry has to go.

I've had the good fortune to have been involved in a wide range of large-scale nanostructure projects. One result was a prize-winning article co-authored with my colleague Prof Phil Gaskell, Mass production of bio-inspired structured surfaces Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science, pp1181-1191, 2007 . Although much of the work I have done is proprietary to MacDermid Autotype, many of the projects have featured in the public domain:

• Motheye anti-reflection structures developed with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy and Holotools, both in Freiburg
• Anti-fouling structures for oil-wells (pdf), developed with Prof Anne Neville, U. Leeds
• "Tree-frog" structures for robots on interior abdominal cavities , developed by Prof Anne Neville's team at U. Leeds
• Structures for enhanced photovoltaic cell efficiency developed with Konarka, Holotools and U. Bath as part of the N2T2 Framework 6 partnership
• Nanorod enhancements for LEDs and lasers developed with U. Bath & U. Linz as part of the N2T2 Framework 6 partnership and with Osram (and other partners) in a Framework 7 program
• Sharkskin features for reduced drag, developed with Dr Nik Kapur, U. Leeds
• Lotus Effect self-cleaning structures developed with Creavis

I continue to have an active interest in the complex interplay of modelling, mastering, formulating and mass production in this fascinating area.