Fabrication of Long Sub-Micron/Nanochannels Via Coffee-Ring Effect

In recent years, micro/nanotechnology has been ubiquitous in our daily life ranging from electronic products, telecommunication to biomedical devices. One of the useful techniques in micro/nanotechnology is micro/nanopatterning, which is used to generate repetitive patterns of micro/nanofeatures on a relatively large area. Despite myriads of methods developed for micro/nanopatterning, the capillary force provides an easier, cheaper, and relatively rapid alternative. In this study, we proposed utilizing the coffee-ring effect and capillary force to perform large-area micro/nanopatterning using biomolecules. By means of replicating the pattern with polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS), we can obtain an array of long sub-micron/nanochannel at a relatively area. Several processing parameters such as solution concentrations, geometrical shapes and dimensions of the mold, and surface properties will be discussed.

Keywords: sub-micron/nanochannel, micro/nanopatterning, capillarity, coffee-ring effect, polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS)