On Pattern Transfer in Replica Molding

Nano- and micromolding of elastic materials produces smoothed replicas of the mold structures. This limits the technique’s resolution. Here we identified surface tension as the cause of smoothing and derived explicit equations for calculating molded feature shapes. The characteristic length scale fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Langmuir 2008-07, Vol.24 (13), p.6636-6639
Main Authors: Gordan, Ovidiu D, Persson, Bo N. J, Cesa, Claudia M, Mayer, Dirk, Hoffmann, Bernd, Dieluweit, Sabine, Merkel, Rudolf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
Colloidal state and disperse state
Exact sciences and technology
General and physical chemistry
Interfaces: Adsorption, Reactions, Films, Forces
Surface physical chemistry
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Summary:Nano- and micromolding of elastic materials produces smoothed replicas of the mold structures. This limits the technique’s resolution. Here we identified surface tension as the cause of smoothing and derived explicit equations for calculating molded feature shapes. The characteristic length scale for smoothing is given by the ratio of the interface tension to Young’s modulus of the molded material. This approach offers the possibility to correct for the smoothing caused by surface tension during mold design. Moreover, it can be exploited to measure interface tension.
ISSN:0743-7463
1520-5827
DOI:10.1021/la800728x