Equipment Catalog

The flow coater (also known as a blade coater) is a compact apparatus for casting uniform films of nanoparticles, molecules, or polymers from solution with user-designed film thickness increments or gradients.  The instrument consists of a motorized linear translation stage that moves a flat substrate underneath a microscope slide edge, or “blade” (with a submillimeter gap between them).  As the substrate moves, the competition between capillary and frictional forces leaves an amount of solution behind that depends on the velocity. Films with thicknesses from 20 to 1000 nm can be deposited, requiring only 10-100 microliters of solution per film.  Film width can be either 1 or 2”.