Versatile Stamps in Microcontact Printing: Transferring Inks by Molecular Recognition and from Ink Reservoirs

Self-Regulatory Micro- and Macroscale Patterning of ATP-Mediated Nanobioconjugate

Directional interactions and the assembly of a nanobioconjugate in clusters at a specific location are important for patterning and microarrays in biomedical research. Herein, we report that self-assembly and spatial control in surface patterning of the surfactant-functionalized nanoparticles can be governed in micro- and macroscale environments by two factors, synergistic enzyme-substrate-nanoparticle affinity and the phoretic effect. First, we show that aggregation of cationic gold nanoparticles (GNP) can be modulated by multivalent anionic nanoparticle binding of an adenosine-based nucleotide and enzyme, alkaline phosphatase. We further demonstrate two different types of their autonomous aggregation pattern: (i) by introducing an enzyme gradient that modulates the synergistic nonequilibrium interactivity of the nanoparticle, nucleotide, and enzyme both in microfluidic conditions and at the macroscale; and (ii) the surface deposition pattern from evaporating droplets via the coffee ring effect. Here, temporal control over the width and site of the patterning area inside the microfluidic channel under catalytic and noncatalytic conditions has also been demonstrated. Finally, we show a change in capillary phoresis parameters responsible for the coffee ring due to introduction of ATP-loaded GNP in the blood serum, showing applicability in low-cost disease diagnostics. Overall, an enzyme-actuated surface nanobiopatterning method has been demonstrated that has potential application in controlled micro- and macroscale area patterning with a diverse cascade catalytic surface and spatiotemporal multisensory-based application.

Research Progress of Microtransfer Printing Technology for Flexible Electronic Integrated Manufacturing

In recent years, with the rapid development of the flexible electronics industry, there is an urgent need for a large-area, multilayer, and high-production integrated manufacturing technology for scalable and flexible electronic products. To solve this technical demand, researchers have proposed and developed microtransfer printing technology, which picks up and prints inks in various material forms from the donor substrate to the target substrate, successfully realizing the integrated manufacturing of flexible electronic products. This review retrospects the representative research progress of microtransfer printing technology for the production of flexible electronic products and emphasizes the summary of seal materials, the basic principles of various transfer technology and fracture mechanics models, and the influence of different factors on the transfer effect. In the end, the unique functions, technical features, and related printing examples of each technology are concluded and compared, and the prospects of further research work on microtransfer printing technology is finally presented.

Alternate Soaking Technique for Micropatterning Alginate Hydrogels on Wettability-patterned Substrates

Techniques for patterning hydrogels are important for fabrication of cell culture, analytical, and actuator devices at the micro- and nanometer length scales. In this study, we fabricated alginate hydrogels cross-linked by divalent cations on wettability-patterned substrates by alternate soaking of precursor solutions of sodium alginate and divalent cations. The wettability-patterned substrates were fabricated on hydrophilic glass plates modified with hydrophobic self-assembled monolayers of hexamethyldisilazane followed by exposure to an ultraviolet/ozone atmosphere through a metal mask. The film thickness of alginate gels with a width and length of 0.1 and 4 mm were tuned stepwise from 30 nm to 200 nm by adjusting the precursor conditions, including the pH, type of divalent metal ions, and sodium alginate concentration, and the alternate soaking conditions, including the dipping/withdrawal speed and number of alternate soaking cycles. This technique can be applied to other functional gels and will contribute to fabrication of hydrogel devices at the micro- and nanometer scales in the future.

Microstructured Photo-Crosslinked Poly(Trimethylene Carbonate) for Use in Soft Lithography Applications: A Biodegradable Alternative for Poly(Dimethylsiloxane)

Photo-crosslinkable poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) macromers were used to fabricate microstructured surfaces. Microstructured PTMC surfaces were obtained by hot embossing the macromer against structured silicon masters and subsequent photo-crosslinking, resulting in network formation. The microstructures of the master could be precisely replicated, limiting the shrinkage. Microstructured PTMC was investigated for use in two different applications: as stamping material to transfer a model protein to another surface and as structured substrate for cell culture. Using the flexible and elastic materials as stamps, bovine serum albumin labelled with fluorescein isothiocyanate was patterned on glass surfaces. In cell culture experiments, the behavior of human mesenchymal stem cells on nonstructured and microstructured PTMC surfaces was investigated. The cells strongly adhered to the PTMC surfaces and proliferated well. Compared to poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), which is commonly used in soft lithography, the PTMC networks offer significant advantages. They show better compatibility with cells, are biodegradable, and have much better mechanical properties. Both materials are transparent, flexible, and elastic at room temperature, but the tear resistance of PTMC networks is much higher than that of PDMS. Thus, PTMC might be an alternative material to PDMS in the fields of biology, medicine, and tissue engineering, in which microfabricated devices are increasingly being applied.

Tuning Surface and Topographical Features to Investigate Competitive Guidance of Spiral Ganglion Neurons

Cochlear Implants (CIs) suffer from limited tonal resolution due, in large part, to spatial separation between stimulating electrode arrays and primary neural receptors. In this work, a combination of physical and chemical micropatterns, formed on acrylate polymers, are used to direct the growth of primary spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), the inner ear neurons. Utilizing the inherent temporal and spatial control of photopolymerization, physical microgrooves are fabricated using a photomask in a single step process. Biochemical patterns are generated by adsorbing laminin, a cell adhesion protein, to acrylate polymer surfaces followed by irradiation through a photomask with UV light to deactivate protein in exposed areas and generate parallel biochemical patterns. Laminin deactivation was shown increase as a function of UV light exposure while remaining adsorbed to the polymer surface. SGN neurites show alignment to both biochemical and physical patterns when evaluated individually. Competing biochemical and physical patterns were also examined. The relative guiding strength of physical cues was varied by independently changing both the amplitude and the band spacing of the microgrooves, with higher amplitudes and shorter band spacing providing cues that more effective guide neurite growth. SGN neurites aligned to laminin patterns with lower physical pattern amplitude and thus weaker physical cues. Alignment of SGNs shifted toward the physical pattern with higher amplitude and lower periodicity patterns which represent stronger cues. These results demonstrate the ability of photopolymerized microfeatures to modulate alignment of inner ear neurites even in the presence of conflicting physical and biochemical cues laying the groundwork for next generation cochlear implants and neural prosthetic devices.

Direct and reversible immobilization and microcontact printing of functional proteins on glass using a genetically appended silica-binding tag

Fusion of disulfide-constrained or linear versions of the Car9 dodecapeptide to model fluorescent proteins support their on-contact and oriented immobilization onto unmodified glass. Bound proteins can be released and the surface regenerated by incubation with l-lysine. This noncovalent chemistry enables rapid and reversibe microcontact printing of tagged proteins and speeds up the production of bicontinuous protein patterns.

Cool microcontact printing to fabricate thermosensitive microgel patterns

A facile method, cool microcontact printing (cool μCP), of fabricating microgel patterns under ambient conditions is developed. By using spontaneously condensed water on the surface of cold items and the phase transition of polymer microgels below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), a cool poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamp can be easily decorated with a thin layer of water ink and its pattern can substantially transfer to a substrate that is assembled with microgels. As a proof of concept, one kind of thermosensitive microgel (i.e., poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM)) is selected to demonstrate our method. A series of pNIPAM microgel patterns with various geometries can be easily generated by featured PDMS stamps through a cool μCP method. The results of control experiment using room-temperature PDMS stamps or patterning the pNIPAM microgel-incorporated fluorescent probe reveal that condensed cold water on a cool PDMS stamp plays an important role when microgel particles are lifted off. In addition, it is also observed that both humidity and contact pressure have effects on the shapes of the pattern fabricated by cool μCP, and more precise or sophisticate patterns can be obtained by adjusting the conditions. It is envisioned that this practically available method, as a good extension to μCP, can facilitate the design of complex patterns, affording great convenience for many inherent applications ranging from photonics to chemical sensing to biotechnology.

Microcontact printing for patterning carbon nanotube/polymer composite films with electrical conductivity

Patterned carbon nanotube (CNT)/acrylic resin composite films were prepared using microcontact printing (μCP). To prepare ink for μCP, CNTs were dispersed into propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA) solution in which acrylic resin and a commercially available dispersant (Disperbyk-2001) dissolved. The resulting ink were spin-coated onto poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamps. By drying solvent components from the ink, CNT/polymer composite films were prepared over PDMS stamps. Contact between the stamps and glass substrates provided CNT/polymer composite patternings on the substrates. The transfer behavior of the CNT/polymer composite films depended on the thermal-treatment temperature during μCP; thermal treatment at temperatures near the glass-transition temperature (T(g)) of the acrylic resin was effective to form uniform patternings on substrates. Moreover, contact area between polymer and substrates also affect the transfer behavior. The CNT/polymer composite films showed high electrical conductivity, despite the nonconductivity of polymer components, because CNTs in the films were interconnected. The electrical conductivity of the composite films increased as CNT content in the film became higher; as a result, the composite patternings showed almost as high electrical conductivity as previously reported CNT/polymer bulk composites.

Surface patterning by microcontact chemistry

In this Feature Article we describe recent progress in covalent surface patterning by microcontact chemistry. Microcontact chemistry is a variation of microcontact printing based on the transfer of reactive "ink" molecules from a microstructured, elastomeric stamp onto surfaces modified with complementary reactive groups, leading to a chemical reaction in the area of contact. In comparison with other lithographic methods, microcontact chemistry has a number of advantageous properties including very short patterning times, low consumption of ink molecules, high resolution and large area patterning. During the past 5 years we and many others have investigated a set of different reactions that allow the modification of flat and also spherical surfaces in an effective way. Especially click-type reactions were found to be versatile for substrate patterning by microcontact chemistry and were applied for chemical modification of reactive self-assembled monolayers and polymer surfaces. Microcontact chemistry has already found broad application for the production of functional surfaces and was also used for the preparation of DNA, RNA, and carbohydrate microarrays, for the immobilization of proteins and cells and for the development of sensors.

Unconventional layer-by-layer assembly: surface molecular imprinting and its applications

Layer-by-layer assembly (LbL) is a rich, versatile, and powerful technique for fabricating multilayer thin films with controlled architecture and functions. Singly charged, uncharged, or water-repellent molecules cannot be used directly in conventional LbL assembly. This problem can be solved with unconventional LbL methods, by employing the preassembly of building blocks in solution and the use of these assemblies for LbL formation at the interface. This Concept summarizes different methods of unconventional LbL assembly, including electrostatic complex formation, hydrogen-bonded complexes, block-copolymer micelles, and π-π interaction complexes. These preassembly treatments endow the building blocks with enhanced abilities for advanced functionality, in particular, surface molecular imprinting, a new concept emerging from unconventional LbL. Molecular imprinting approaches are thus conceptually described based on different types of interactions and their great potential in applications is demonstrated by examples such as selective surface patterning and selective filtration.

Self-organization of thin polymer films guided by electrostatic charges on the substrate

The self-organization of thin polymer films into functional patterns is important both scientifically and technologically. Electric fields have been exploited as an efficient and powerful means to induce the destabilization and self-organization of soft materials. Previous attention, however, has mainly focused on externally applied electric fields. It is shown herein that the internal electric field is strong enough to guide the self-organization of thin polymer films as well. Patterns of electrostatic charges with micrometer resolution are first introduced on a dielectric substrate. A thin polymer film is then spin-coated onto the topographically flat substrate. Upon thermal annealing, the thin polymer film destabilizes due to a lateral gradient of electrostatic stress and flows away from the electroneutral regime to the charged area, resembling the patterns of charges on the substrate. Theoretical and numerical modeling based on the electrohydrodynamic instability shows excellent agreement with experimental observations both qualitatively and quantitatively. It is also demonstrated that the interplay between charge-driven instability with spinodal dewetting and Rayleigh instabilities can generate finer and hierarchical polymeric patterns that are completely different from the charge patterns preintroduced on the substrate. This study provides direct evidence that the internal electric field caused by charges on the substrate is strong enough to destabilize thin polymeric films and generate patterns. This study also demonstrates new strategies for bottom-up fabrication of structured functional materials.

Improving protein transfer efficiency and selectivity in affinity contact printing by using UV-modified surfaces

Affinity contact printing (αCP) is a technique that allows the selective capture of a target protein from solutions to a polymeric stamp decorated with an antibody, and then the target protein is printed onto a solid surface. The success of αCP critically relies on the precise control of protein-surface interactions. Here, we report a study on the effect of UV on the protein-surface interactions between protein and polydimethylsiloxane stamps and between protein and glass slides decorated with N,N-dimethyl-n-octadecyl-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilyl chloride (DMOAP). Our results show that UV-modified surfaces can be used to improve the transfer efficiency and selectivity of proteins during αCP. For example, the protein transfer efficiency of human IgG onto a DMOAP-coated slide increases from 7.2% to 45.1% after the UV treatment. On the basis of these results, UV-modified surfaces were employed to develop a αCP system for protein detection. The detection limit of anti-IgG in this system is around 10 ng/mL, and the dynamic range is 4 orders of magnitude.

Patterning of peptide nucleic acids using reactive microcontact printing

PNAs (peptide nucleic acids) have been immobilized onto surfaces in a fast, accurate way by employing reactive microcontact printing. Surfaces have been first modified with aldehyde groups to react with the amino end of the synthesized PNAs. When patterning fluorescein-labeled PNAs by reactive microcontact printing using oxygen-oxidized polydimethylsiloxane stamps, homogeneous arrays were fabricated and characterized using optical methods. PNA-patterned surfaces were hybridized with complementary and mismatched dye-labeled oligonucleotides to test their ability to recognize DNA sequences. The stability and selectivity of the PNA-DNA duplexes on surfaces have been verified by fluorescence microscopy, and the melting curves have been recorded. Finally, the technique has been applied to the fabrication of chips by spotting a PNA microarray onto a flat PDMS stamp and reproducing the same features onto many slides. The chips were finally applied to single nucleotide polymorphism detection on oligonucleotides.