Chad Mirkin and colleagues have investigated how the flow of block co-polymer inks from the tip of an AFM probe is affected by the ink’s viscosity. The size of the ink features was found to increase with dwell time and decrease with ink viscosity.
The technique, known as dip-pen nanolithography, was originally developed as a molecular patterning technique for printing small alkanethiol molecules onto a gold surface, but it has rapidly become popular method for synthesising all manner of nano structures.
An understanding of how different substances behave as they move between the probe tip and the surface of the substrate is crucial for designing new materials, patterns and processes.
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The role of viscosity on polymer ink transport in dip-pen nanolithography
Guoliang Liu , Yu Zhou , Resham S. Banga , Radha Boya , Keith A. Brown , Anthony J. Chipre , SonBinh T. Nguyen and Chad A. Mirkin
Chem. Sci., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3SC50423A
