Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:31:02.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Dip-Pen Nanolithography: Automated Fabrication of Custom Multicomponent Sub-100-Nanometer Surface Architectures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Get access

Extract

As physical processes for generating miniaturized structures increase in resolution, the types of scientific questions one can ask and answer become increasingly refined. Indeed, if one had the capability to control surface architecture on the 1–100-nm length scale with reasonable speed and accuracy, one could ask and answer some of the most important questions in science and, in the process, develop technologies that could allow for major advances in surface science, chemistry, biology, and human health. This length scale, which is exceedingly difficult to control, comprises the length scale of much of chemistry and most of biology. Indeed, chemical and biochemical recognition events are essentially sophisticated examples of pattern-recognition processes. Therefore, if one could pattern on this length scale with control over feature size, shape, registration, and composition, one could systematically uncover the secrets of recognition processes involving extraordinarily complex molecules. Arecent invention, dip-pen nanolithography (DPN), may provide access to this type of control over surface architecture and entry into a new realm of structure-versus-function studies for chemists, biologists, physicists, and materials scientists.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Schoer, J.K. and Crooks, R.M., Langmuir 13 (1997) p. 2323; S. Xu and G. Liu, Langmuir 13 (1997) p. 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Piner, R.D. and Mirkin, C.A., Langmuir 13 (1997) p. 6864.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Piner, R.D., Zhu, J., Xu, F., Hong, S., and Mirkin, C.A., Science 283 (1999) p. 661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Hong, S., Zhu, J., and Mirkin, C.A., Langmuir 15 (1999) p. 7897.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Mirkin, C.A., MRS Bull. 25 (1) (2000) p. 43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Hong, S., Zhu, J., and Mirkin, C.A., Science 286 (1999) p. 523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Hong, S. and Mirkin, C.A., Science 288 (2000) p. 1808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Weinberger, D.A., Hong, S., Mirkin, C.A., Wessels, B.W., and Higgins, T.B., Adv. Mater. 12 (2000) p. 1600.3.0.CO;2-6>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Mirkin, C.A., Inorg. Chem. 39 (2000) p. 2258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar