Directed assembly of polymer blends using nanopatterned templates

A method was proposed to nano-manufacturing of highly ordered polymeric features in nonuniform geometries by directed assembly of polymer blends on chemically patterned surfaces. Alkanethiols with different chemical functionalities were prepared using electron-beam lithography and self-assembly of alkanethiol molecules. It was observed that complex geometries including 90° bends, T-junctions, square, and circle arrays for integrated circuits in nanoelectronics can be prepared with this method. The study demonstrated that these chemically patterned surface helped to direct the deposition of a single polymer component to specific regions of the surface. This method opened opportunities for using chemically functionalized substrates for applications in biosensors, biochips, photonics, nanolithography, and electronics.