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Micro features on surfaces are critical for the functionality of a product, such as micro channels for a microfluidic chip and micro lens arrays for an artificial compound eye lens. In the present work, we design a series of microfluidic and microstructured surface patterns to evaluate the influence of variotherm and vacuum venting on replication integrity of micro features. By using a process monitoring system, including machine process and cavity pressure/temperature measurements, the influence of warm and cold circuit settings, and vacuum venting are characterised in terms of injection pressure, cavity pressure and mould–polymer interface temperature. These are then correlated with the replication integrity of micro features by assessing feature replication height, cross-section area and surface morphology. The performance of anti-stick coatings on a micro mould tool insert was also characterised in terms of moulding cycles. After a series experiments and optimisation, we have significantly enhanced feature replication with 100% replication of proposed features without either significant distortion or tearing, which cannot easily be achieved using conventional injection moulding. Additionally, we have successfully moulded features having good integrity and a maximum aspect ratio of up to 10 at a width of less than 8 μm over areas as large as 5.25 mm2.

Oxides of titanium have found applications in areas such as energy capture, cell attachment to biomedical devices and as catalytic surfaces. This study demonstrates that the use of a microwave plasma can significantly enhance both titanium oxide formation and growth rate, compared with those obtained using conventional furnace treatments. The ability of microwave plasma treatments to control the thickness and morphology of oxides grown on titanium substrates is demonstrated. For a fixed plasma treatment time of 10 min, depending on the input power and treatment pressure, the oxide-layer thickness of between 0.69 and 10.45 μm were obtained. The associated roughness (Ra) values were in the range of 0.11–0.67 μm. This study demonstrated that the morphology of the oxide-layer was particularly influenced by the input power to the plasma, while oxide thickness was depended on the treatment pressure and time. The mechanism of titanium oxidation was also investigated and based on the homogeneous oxidation observed across the titanium metal surface (under the oxide layer), it is also concluded that the mechanism of oxidation is ‘general corrosion’.

Micron thick titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings exhibiting a nano-structured, anatase, meso-porous structure were successfully deposited across a range of polymer, conductive glass and metallic substrates at low velocities using a microblasting technique. This process was conducted at atmospheric pressure using compressed air as the carrier gas and commercially available agglomerated nano particles of TiO2 as the feedstock. An examination of the effect of impact kinetics on the agglomerated powder before and after deposition was undertaken. A further examination of the coating microstructure along with photocurrent density measurements before and after thermal treatments was explored. Owing to the low temperature and velocity of the powder during deposition no change in phase of the powder or damage to the substrate was observed. The resulting TiO2 coatings exhibited relatively good adhesion on both titanium and FTO coated glass substrates with coating thickness of approximately 1.5 μm. Photo-catalytic performance was measured under solar simulator illumination using a photo-electrochemical cell (PEC) with a 5-fold increase in performance observed after thermal treatment of the TiO2 coated substrates. Microblasting was demonstrated to be a rapid and cost effective method for the deposition of nano-structured, photo-catalytic, anatase TiO2 coatings. Deposited by bulk import 5/11/2013. SB.