Massively parallel patterning of complex 2D and 3D functional polymer brushes by polymer pen lithography

We report the first demonstration of centimeter-area serial patterning of complex 2D and 3D functional polymer brushes by high-throughput polymer pen lithography. Arbitrary 2D and 3D structures of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) brushes are fabricated over areas as large as 2 cm × 1 cm, with a remarkable throughput being 3 orders of magnitudes higher than the state-of-the-arts. Patterned PGMA brushes are further employed as resist for fabricating Au micro/nanostructures and hard molds for the subsequent replica molding of soft stamps. On the other hand, these 2D and 3D PGMA brushes are also utilized as robust and versatile platforms for the immobilization of bioactive molecules to form 2D and 3D patterned DNA oligonucleotide and protein chips. Therefore, this low-cost, yet high-throughput "bench-top" serial fabrication method can be readily applied to a wide range of fields including micro/nanofabrication, optics and electronics, smart surfaces, and biorelated studies.