Rapid prototyping of patterned functional nanostructures

Hongyou Fan, Yunfeng Lu, Aaron Stump, Scott T. Reed, Tom Baer, Randy Schunk, Victor Perez-Luna, Gabriel P. López and C. Jeffrey Brinker ()
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Hongyou Fan: The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
Yunfeng Lu: Sandia National Laboratories
Aaron Stump: The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
Scott T. Reed: Sandia National Laboratories
Tom Baer: Sandia National Laboratories
Randy Schunk: Sandia National Laboratories
Victor Perez-Luna: The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
Gabriel P. López: The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
C. Jeffrey Brinker: The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6782, 56-60

Abstract: Abstract Living systems exhibit form and function on multiple length scales and at multiple locations. In order to mimic such natural structures, it is necessary to develop efficient strategies for assembling hierarchical materials. Conventional photolithography, although ubiquitous in the fabrication of microelectronics and microelectromechanical systems, is impractical for defining feature sizes below 0.1 micrometres and poorly suited to pattern chemical functionality. Recently, so-called ‘soft’ lithographic approaches1 have been combined with surfactant2,3 and particulate4 templating procedures to create materials with multiple levels of structural order. But the materials thus formed have been limited primarily to oxides with no specific functionality, and the associated processing times have ranged from hours to days. Here, using a self-assembling ‘ink’, we combine silica–surfactant self-assembly with three rapid printing procedures—pen lithography, ink-jet printing, and dip-coating of patterned self-assembled monolayers—to form functional, hierarchically organized structures in seconds. The rapid-prototyping procedures we describe are simple, employ readily available equipment, and provide a link between computer-aided design and self-assembled nanostructures. We expect that the ability to form arbitrary functional designs on arbitrary surfaces will be of practical importance for directly writing sensor arrays and fluidic or photonic systems.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35011026

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