title: Versatile methods for the fabrication of polyvinylidene fluoride microstructures.
abstract: Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microstructures are of interest for a number of BioMEMS applications both for their piezoelectric and biocompatible properties. In this work, simple soft lithography-based techniques were developed to fabricate PVDF microstructures with diverse geometries, including microarrays of pillars, lines, and wells. Four different microstructure configurations were created: freestanding, stamped discontinuous, stamped continuous and imprinted patterns. Features with lateral dimensions down to 1 μm were consistently reproduced on 2.5 cm diameter areas. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements of poled PVDF microstructures confirmed a marked inverse piezoelectric behavior. The techniques presented here have a number of advantages over previously demonstrated PVDF micropatterning approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gallego-Perez
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Ferrell
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Higuita-Castro
authors.forename: Derek J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hansford
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D055616:Microtechnology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011145:Polyvinyls / Q000737:chemistry*; D011327:Printing; D005465:Fluorocarbon Polymers
chemical_list: D011145:Polyvinyls; C024865:polyvinylidene fluoride; D005465:Fluorocarbon Polymers