Microcontact Printing with Heavyweight Inks

Abstract

Thioether derivatives with 1–4 thioether moieties were used as inks in microcontact printing on gold for the reproduction of patterns as they combine good monolayer quality with synthetic versatility, and high molecular weights. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold of compounds 1 and 2 had a quality comparable to SAMs of decanethiol, both regarding monolayer order and etch resistance. Etch resistances of SAMs of 3 and 4 were lower. Resulting structures after etching of patterned SAMs using 1, 2, and 3 were of good quality for patterns with feature sizes on the same stamp ranging from 1–200 μm. Patterns of 4 were not reproduced. Overall, compounds 1 and 2 are good candidates for low-diffusion inks.