Synthesis and Applications of Polymer-based Micro- and Nanostructures

Abstract

Recently, there has been growing interest in polymer micro- and nanostructures, for their material properties, low cost, optical transparency, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. They have seen exciting applications in various fields. These applications require the polymer micro- and nanostructures to cover a large area at low cost with good uniformity. Here, we present several fabrication methods to produce various micro- and nanostructures on polyimide (PI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polystyrene (PS) substrates. The mechanism of combining interference lithography (IL) and plasma etching in creating PET nanostructures was investigated in detail. Additionally, two applications of these patterned substrates were presented, in biomedical and micro-fabrication. We also report an attempt of actuating PDMS nanopillars and the challenges associated with it. We demonstrate the possibilities of fabricating polymer micro- and nanostructures in easy and cost-effective ways and show their potential in diverse areas.