Patterned Au/Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Substrate Fabricated by Chemical Plating Coupled with Electrochemical Etching for Cell Patterning

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel approach for preparing patterned Au/poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrate. Chemical gold plating instead of conventional metal evaporation or sputtering was introduced to achieve a homogeneous gold layer on native PDMS for the first time, which possesses low-cost and simple operation. An electrochemical oxidation reaction accompanied by the coordination of gold and chloride anion was then exploited to etch gold across the region covered by electrolyte. On the basis of such an electrochemical etching, heterogeneous Au/PDMS substrate which has a gold "island" pattern or PDMS dots pattern was fabricated. Hydrogen bubbles which were generated in the etching process due to water electrolysis were used to produce a safe region under the Pt auxiliary electrode. The safe region would protect gold film from etching and lead to the formation of the gold "island" pattern. In virtue of a PDMS stencil with holes array, gold could be etched from the exposed region and take on the PDMS dots pattern which was selected to for protein and cell patterning. This patterned Au/PDMS substrate is very convenient to construct cytophobic and cytophilic regions. Self-assembled surface modification of (1-mercaptoundec-11-yl)hexa(ethylene glycol) on gold and adsorption of fibronectin on PDMS are suitable for effective protein and cell patterning. This patterned Au/PDMS substrate would be a potentially versatile platform for fabricating biosensing arrays.

Surface Coating as a Key Parameter in Engineering Neuronal Network Structures In Vitro

“…Many cell types have been successfully patterned with microfluidics [14][15][16], lCP [17], inkjet printing [18,19], plasma treatment [20], self-assembled monolayers [21][22][23][24], self-assembled constructs [25], laser scanning lithography [26], atomic force microscope lithography, dip-pen nanolithography [27], topography [28,29], carbon nano-tubes [30], or their combinations [31,32]. Neurons are, however, distinctive cells with highly polarized morphology, much smaller somata, and thus few anchoring points for adhesion in comparison to most types of adherent mammalian cells.…”

Patterning of supported gold monolayers via chemical lift-off lithography

“…Incorporating chemical functionality onto PDMS will be useful for integrating sensing functions into microfluidic devices [ 68 – 80 ]. Compared with many techniques used to impart sub-micrometer features onto PDMS [ 74 – 76 ], CLL is parallel, high-throughput, and is performed under ambient conditions.…”

Self-assembled Monolayers and Nanocomposite Hydrogels of Functional Nanomaterials for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Similarly, structured gold/PDMS substrate was generated for cellular organization by using electrochemical etching method. The prepared patterned Au/PDMS consisting of cytophilic and cytophobic regions was successfully used for protein or cellular patterning studies . Ding and coworkers described the preperation of patterned cell adhesive biomolecule functionalized AuNPs on PEG hydrogels.…”