Dip Coaters

Technology benefits

The dip coating technique is a simple yet versatile method for creating various coatings in fields such as biomaterials, electronics or sensors. Some of the benefits include:

• Dipping process can be fully automated.
• Versatility enabling use of substrates of various sizes, shapes and materials.
• Versatility enabling use of several different liquids in a single coating sequence.
• Upscalable technique all the way from laboratory to industrial high throughput.
• Coating quality and thickness can be adjusted with measurement parameters.

Application overview

KSV NIMA Dip Coaters are high quality and extremely accurate dipping solutions that can be used for simple multilayer coating or when the packing density of the molecules isn’t critical. The dip coaters are especially utilized in nanoparticle deposition. Some of the application areas include:

• Multilayer sensor coatings
• Implant functionalization
• Hydrogels
• Sol-gel nanoparticle coatings
• Self-assembled monolayers
• Layer-by-layer nanoparticle assemblies.

For more information, see: Dip Coating

Features & Benefits

• Computer-based, fully programmable dipping sequences eliminate the need for manual dipping.
• Thanks to high quality parts and robust design, the dipping is repeated exactly the same each time, independent of the user.

• Vibration free immersion and withdrawal: The dipping mechanism enables vibration-free immersion and withdrawal of samples into the liquid vessels for precise and uniform coatings.

• Flexibility to use different sizes of samples and up to eight different liquids in a single measurement allow use of different particles and flushing fluids.
• Proven results as shown by hundreds of high quality academic publications and industrial customers.

Product details

KSV NIMA Dip Coaters are designed to deposit layers of materials in a controlled and repeatable manner.Films of various thicknesses can be deposited, from monolayers to multilayered structures. Automated dippers are well suited to situations when deposition is based on kinetic factors and where good control is needed. For multilayer deposition, multi-vessel dipping enables automated deposition with good reproducibility.

The product range covers compact instruments for coating small samples in a single vessel to more complex systems enabling horizontal and vertical movement for multi-vessel operations and coating of large samples.

The range of dip coaters is divided into two types: single and mul­ti-vessel systems. Single vessel dip coaters are used to deposit from one solution while the multiple Vessel Dip Coaters enable many solutions to be used that can include cleaning or rinsing. The single vessel and multi-vessel categories feature small, medium and large systems to cater for a large range of sample sizes. A single vessel dip coater is also available for extra large samples. You can choose from dip coater systems suited to sample weight, sample size, number of samples, dipper movements and number of vessels required (see the tables below for exact specifications).

All KSV NIMA Dip Coaters come complete with software, a computer interface with USB connection, instruction manual and solution vessels.

Multi Vessel Small	Multi Vessel Medium/Large

You can find a complete product description in the product brochure.

Accessories are available for adding further capabilities to your the KSV NIMA Dip Coaters. For the complete accessory list, see:

• KSV NIMA Dip Coaters Accessories Brochure

Custom projects

Biolin Scientific has constructed many custom KSV NIMA dip coaters over the years for customers with specific requirements and can consider any design modifications you desire. Please consult our custom project page for more information on possible customizations.

Application examples

Nanoparticle coatings

KSV NIMA Dip Coaters have been utilized for example in the fabrication of bioceramic nanoparticles, biosensors, implants and hybrid coatings. For example, KSV NIMA Dip Coaters have been used to establish a simple yet fast nonthermal coating method to immobilize hydroxyapatite and TiO2 nanoparticles on poly(methyl methacrylate) PMMA (ACS Appl. Mater. and Interfaces 2016, 8, 35565-35577).

In another study, porous cellulose nanocrystals and poly(vinyl alcohol) CNC/PVA nanocomposite films with a thickness of 25−70 nm were deposited on glass substrates using KSV NIMA Dip Coaters (ACS Appl. Mater. and Interfaces 2014, 6, 12674-12683).

Sol-gel technique

Dip coating of inorganic sols (or so-called sol-gel synthesis) is a way of creating thin inorganic or polymeric coatings. In sol-gel synthesis the speed of deposition speed is an important parameter that affects, for example, layer thickness, density and porosity.

The sol-gel technique is a deposition method that is widely used in material science to create protective coatings, optical coatings or ceramics etc. This technique starts with the hydrolysis of a liquid precursor (sol), which undergoes poly-condensation to gradually obtain a gel. This gel is a bi-phasic system containing both a liquid phase (solvent) and a solid phase (integrated network, typically polymer network). The proportion of liquid is reduced stepwise. The rest of the liquid can be removed by drying and can be coupled with a thermal treatment to tailor the material properties of the solid.