IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Biomaterials Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI+NS-WeA

Paper BI+NS-WeA7
The Micropatterning of Mixed SAM Surfaces Using Inkjet Printing Technology: A Comparison Study to Microcontact Printing

Wednesday, October 31, 2001, 4:00 pm, Room 103

Session: Nanobiology
Presenter: L.F. Pardo, Clemson University
Authors: L.F. Pardo, Clemson University
T. Boland, Clemson University
Correspondent: Click to Email

Micropatterning is a powerful method for controlling surface properties, with a myriad of applications ranging from cell biology to electronics. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiolates on gold, the structures most widely used for preparing organic films with specific surface properties, are usually patterned by partitioning the surface into regions formed from different thiols. In microcontact printing for example, patterned self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are printed onto a surface using a polydimethilsiloxane (PDMS), made using a microfabricated mold. Although this technique is suitable, the distortion of patterns, pattern limitation to binary mixtures and expensive mold design are limiting the efficient use of stamps. In this study, a new method utilizing inkjet printing technology for patterning mixed thiols is introduced. Methyl and carboxyl-terminated hexadecanethiols were patterned onto clean gold surfaces using a modified inkjet printer. The topography of the micropatterned samples was visualized and measured by atomic force microscopy. The chemico-physical properties investigated by Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy and dynamic contact angle measurements suggest that inkjet printer yielded high throughput patterning on surfaces. This new inkjet printing technique provides a quick and inexpensive method for micropatterning alkanethiols of surfaces.