Fabrication of Ultrafine Soft-Matter Arrays by Selective Contact Thermochemical Reaction

Patterning of functional soft matters at different length scales is important for diverse research fields including cell biology, tissue engineering and medicinal science and the development of optics and electronics. Here we have further improved a simple but very efficient method, selective contact thermochemical reaction (SCTR), for patterning soft matters over large area with a sub-100 nm resolution. By selecting contact between different precursors through a topographically patterned PDMS stamp and subsequently any heating way for thermalchemical reaction, thermal-related soft matters can be patterned to form controllable micro or nano structures, even three-dimensional structures. The fine tunability and controllability of as-prepared micro and nano structures demonstrate this versatile approach a far wide range of uses than the merely academic.