am8b03038_si_005.avi (6.25 MB)
Simultaneous Printing of Two Inks by Contact Lithography
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posted on 2018-04-04, 00:00 authored by David Moore, Ravi F. SarafMicrocontact printing (μCP)
is a valuable technique used
to fabricate complex patterns on surfaces for applications such as
sensors, cell seeding, self-assembled monolayers of proteins and nanoparticles,
and micromachining. The process is very precise but is typically confined
to depositing a single type of ink per print, which limits the complexity
of using multifunctionality patterns. Here we describe a process by
which two inks are printed concomitantly in a single operation to
create an alternating pattern of hydrophobic and hydrophilic characteristics.
The hydrophobic ink, PDMS, is deposited by evaporation on the noncontact
region, while the hydrophilic polyelectrolyte is transferred on contact.
We demonstrate that there is no gap between the two patterns using
an optical–electrochemical method. We describe some potential
applications of this method, including layer-by-layer deposition of
polyelectrolytes for sensors and creation of a scaffold for cell culture.