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. 2020 May 23;25(10):2438.
doi: 10.3390/molecules25102438.

3D Micro/Nanopatterning of a Vinylferrocene Copolymer

Dennis Löber  1 , Subhayan Dey  2 , Burhan Kaban  1 , Fabian Roesler  2 , Martin Maurer  2 , Hartmut Hillmer  1 , Rudolf Pietschnig  2
Affiliations

3D Micro/Nanopatterning of a Vinylferrocene Copolymer

Dennis Löber et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

In nanoimprint lithography (NIL), a pattern is created by mechanical deformation of an imprint resist via embossing with a stamp, where the adhesion behavior during the filling of the imprint stamp and its subsequent detachment may impose some practical challenges. Here we explored thermal and reverse NIL patterning of polyvinylferrocene and vinylferrocene-methyl methacrylate copolymers to prepare complex non-spherical objects and patterns. While neat polyvinylferrocene was found to be unsuitable for NIL, freshly-prepared vinylferrocene-methyl methacrylate copolymers, for which identity and purity were established, have been structured into 3D-micro/nano-patterns using NIL. The cross-, square-, and circle-shaped columnar structures form a 3 × 3 mm arrangement with periodicity of 3 µm, 1 µm, 542 nm, and 506 nm. According to our findings, vinylferrocene-methyl methacrylate copolymers can be imprinted without further additives in NIL processes, which opens the way for redox-responsive 3D-nano/micro-objects and patterns via NIL to be explored in the future.

Keywords: copolymer; methyl methacrylate; reverse nanoimprint lithography; vinylferrocene.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the fabrication of the master template (A), casting process of our hybrid PDMS stamp (B), modification of the hybrid PDMS stamp (C) for the thermal NIL imprint (D) and the reverse NIL process (E), which was used to fabricate MVF-imprinted structures. Perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane (FDTS) serves as an anti-adhesive layer (cf. Section 3.3).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Imprinted patterns fabricated by thermal NIL. Squares with a 506 nm side length (A), circles with a diameter of 542 nm (B), crosses with a side length of 1 µm (C), and squares (D), circles (E), and crosses (F) with side length diameters of 3 µm, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of the master template (A–C) with the imprint results of 506 nm feature size structures imprinted via reverse NIL (D–F). A slight change in structure size is visible. The scale bar indicates 500 nm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of thermal and reverse NIL imprinted structures. The improperly-imprinted area observed for thermal NIL (A,C), whereby the imprint via reverse NIL structures in sub-micron dimensions can be imprinted properly (B,D). The scale bar indicates 3 µm.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cyclic voltammogram of MVF in dichloromethane (referenced vs. FcMe10/FcMe10+), voltage sweep 250 mV/s.
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