Eco-friendly and rapid fabrication method for producing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) mask using intensive pulsed light

An eco-friendly and rapid fabrication method of processing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films was developed using a laser printer and a xenon flashlight at room temperature under ambient air conditions by imprinting a pattern onto the PET films. A black square pattern was laser-printed onto various thicknesses of PET films and subjected to flashes of different powers. Using black colored patterns and a certain thickness of PET film, the black ink created a void in the PET film in the form of the set pattern. To understand this phenomenon, we measured the light absorbance spectrum of the xenon flashlight using a one-millisecond sampling rate of UV-vis spectrometer. Furthermore, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) compositions of the printed colors, such as yellow, red, green, blue, and black, were extracted using an image color extraction tool. By investigating the degree of light absorbed by the PET film, the absorbance score was defined by combining the percentage of light intensity with the wavelength of the light and the proportion of each color in the RGB compositions. A complex star pattern and a mask for the fabrication of a copper nanoink electrode were created to demonstrate the industry applications of the method.