Shaping Metallic Nanolattices: Design by Microcontact Printing from Wrinkled Stamps

Abstract

A method for the fabrication of well‐defined metallic nanostructures is presented here in a simple and straightforward fashion. As an alternative to lithographic techniques, this routine employs microcontact printing utilizing wrinkled stamps, which are prepared from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and includes the formation of hydrophobic stripe patterns on a substrate via the transfer of oligomeric PDMS. Subsequent backfilling of the interspaces between these stripes with a hydroxyl‐functional poly(2‐vinyl pyridine) then provides the basic pattern for the deposition of citrate‐stabilized gold nanoparticles promoted by electrostatic interaction. The resulting metallic nanostripes can be further customized by peeling off particles in a second microcontact printing step, which employs poly(ethylene imine) surface‐decorated wrinkled stamps, to form nanolattices. Due to the independent adjustability of the period dimensions of the wrinkled stamps and stamp orientation with respect to the substrate, particle arrays on the (sub)micro‐scale with various kinds of geometries are accessible in a straightforward fashion. This work provides an alternative, cost‐effective, and scalable surface‐patterning technique to fabricate nanolattice structures applicable to multiple types of functional nanoparticles. Being a top‐down method, this process could be readily implemented into, e.g., the fabrication of optical and sensing devices on a large scale.

BIO bragg gratings on microfibers for label-free biosensing

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Solid-Phase Microcontact Printing for Precise Patterning of Rough Surfaces: Using Polymer-Tethered Elastomeric Stamps for the Transfer of Reactive Silanes

“…Accordingly, printing experiments, during which this aspect has not been addressed properly, resulted in the formation of stripe patterns with an unexpectedly high topography of ∼280 nm as indicated via AFM (respective AFM images as well as height profile shown in Figure S10) that could be reduced to a few nanometers by washing with an organic solvent. Being a well-known problem in PDMS microcontact printing, , finding a strategy to avoid said formation has proven crucial throughout this study and has been overcome by extending the PDMS stamp curing time to 16 h and performing an additional printing step by applying a certain force at elevated temperature to squeeze the remaining insides out of the stamp.…”

Recent Advances in Patterning Natural Polymers: From Nanofabrication Techniques to Applications

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