Direct Writing of Metal Nanoparticles by Localized Plasma Electrochemical Reduction of Metal Cations in Polymer Films

A direct-write "dip-pen" nanolithography (DPN) has been developed to deliver collections of molecules in a positive printing mode. An atomic force microscope (AFM) tip is used to write alkanethiols with 30-nanometer linewidth resolution on a gold thin film in a manner analogous to that of a dip pen. Molecules are delivered from the AFM tip to a solid substrate of interest via capillary transport, making DPN a potentially useful tool for creating and functionalizing nanoscale devices.