The World’s Smallest Fountain Pen

News
By published
This scanning electron micrograph shows the new nanofountain-probe dispensing tip. (Image credit: © 2005 Horacio D. Espinosa)

Researchers have created the world's smallest fountain pen with a tip so tiny it can draw lines a hundred times thinner than a red blood cell.

Called the "nanonfountain probe," it can paint lines as thin as 40 nanometers and has its own reservoir to hold various types of inks, including pigments for painting patterns and organic materials for designing sensors.

The new pen can be attached to the atomic-force microscope, which allows scientists to see nanoscale environments as well as draw on them. Possible uses for such a tiny pen, or an array of several of them, include crafting miniscule protein arrays and complex semiconductors.

Because scientists built the pen using standard microfabrication techniques and materials, it will be possible to mass-produce the tips.

The pen was developed by researchers at the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies. The research was published earlier this year in the journal Small and was publicly announced this week.

Small Stuff

Micromachines

Microscopic Art

Bjorn Carey
Bjorn Carey is the science information officer at Stanford University. He has written and edited for various news outlets, including Live Science's Life's Little Mysteries, Space.com and Popular Science. When it comes to reporting on and explaining wacky science and weird news, Bjorn is your guy. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his beautiful son and wife.