Microdisplacement Printing

Abstract

We describe a new patterning technique that employs microcontact printing to replace preformed labile self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) selectively; we call this "microdisplacement printing". We demonstrate that this technique results in ordered molecular regions of both the patterning ("displacing") molecule as well as the remnant labile film, here 1-adamantanethiolate. The existence of the 1-adamantanethiolate SAM before patterning hinders lateral surface diffusion of the patterning molecules, and therefore permits the use of molecules that are otherwise too mobile to pattern by other methods.