Issue 94, 2022

Nanometer-scale patterning of hard and soft interfaces: from photolithography to molecular-scale design

Abstract

Many areas of modern materials chemistry, from nanoscale electronics to regenerative medicine, require design of precisely-controlled chemical environments at near-molecular scales. Most work on high-resolution interface patterning to date has focused on hard surfaces, such as those for electronics. However, design of interfaces for biological environments increasingly requires precise control over interfaces of soft materials, which is in many cases complicated by nano-to-microscale heterogeneity in the substrate material. In this Feature Article, we describe historical approaches to nanoscale patterning on hard surfaces, challenges in extension to soft interfaces, and an approach to molecular-scale hard and soft interface design based on self-assembled molecular networks, which can be assembled noncovalently on hard surfaces to generate nanometer-scale patterns, then covalently transferred to soft materials including PDMS and hydrogels.

Graphical abstract: Nanometer-scale patterning of hard and soft interfaces: from photolithography to molecular-scale design

Article information

Article type
Feature Article
Submitted
22 Sep 2022
Accepted
31 Oct 2022
First published
14 Nov 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Commun., 2022,58, 13059-13070

Nanometer-scale patterning of hard and soft interfaces: from photolithography to molecular-scale design

A. Singh, A. Shi and S. A. Claridge, Chem. Commun., 2022, 58, 13059 DOI: 10.1039/D2CC05221K

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