title: Spreading of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid in microcontact printing.
abstract: Spreading in microcontact printing refers to the process or processes by which the ink molecules end up in the parts of the substrate that are adjacent to the contacted areas but which are not contacted themselves. This has been investigated for different inking concentrations of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid (MHDA). Spreading of MHDA takes place with retention of a well-defined demarcation. Feature sizes can be controlled by varying the contact times. Spreading, however, only takes place beyond a certain threshold concentration. For low ink concentrations the edges of stamp features dominate the ink transfer. For these low concentrations the extent of this edge dominance depends strongly on ink concentration rather than on contact time. These observations indicate a dominant role of the stamp surface in the processes of pattern formation and spreading.
authors.affiliation: MESA Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruben B A
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Burdinski
authors.forename: Jurriaan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huskens
authors.forename: Harold J W
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Zandvliet
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Reinhoudt
authors.forename: Bene
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Poelsema