Nano-Structuring by Molecular Self-Assembly

In contrast to conventional lithography techniques which will soon hit their limits in terms of feature size and fabrication cost, recent years have seen considerable progress in the development of self-assembling nano-structured surfaces. In the work reported here, surface structures on the submicron scale have been created from polymer, copolymer, nanoparticle, and dendrimer building blocks by employing phenomena such as self-assembly, self-organization and non-equilibrium processes. This low-cost approach is expected to result in a new generation of surfaces with novel physical and chemical properties