Confined and focused electric fields induce array jet crosstalk suppression for multi-nozzle electrohydrodynamic printing

Multi-nozzle electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing is an efficient direct-writing technology that has significant advantages in the large-scale preparation of micrometer- and nanometer-scale arranged patterns. However, the non-uniform electric field between different nozzles causes obvious jet crosstalk or inconsistent injection during the printing process, which significantly affects the printing effect. In this paper, a new active control method is proposed to suppress array jet crosstalk by coupling the effect of electric field confinement and focusing, where the confinement electric field is generated by a ring-shaped electrode, and a focusing electric field is generated by a needle-shaped electrode. According to the simulation analysis and the experiments, the coupling effect of electric field confinement and focusing has obvious suppression on array jet crosstalk, and multi-nozzle electrospinning achieved less than 2% spacing deviation, compared to approximately 20% in the traditional electrospinning process. By rotating the print head by 36°, the line spacing was reduced to 80% of the nozzle spacing, and excellent printing quality could still be maintained using the method proposed in this paper. This novel method offers a promising solution for achieving high-precision, large-scale, and multi-nozzle EHD printing.