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PHYSICAL SCIENCES / CHEMISTRY
Colloids with high-definition surface structures

Hsien-Yeh Chen, Jean-Marie Rouillard, Erdogan Gulari, and Joerg Lahann^,,,¶

Departments of Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Edited by Robert Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and approved May 18, 2007 (received for review March 23, 2007)

Compared with the well equipped arsenal of surface modification methods for flat surfaces, techniques that are applicable to curved, colloidal surfaces are still in their infancy. This technological gap exists because spin-coating techniques used in traditional photolithographic processes are not applicable to the curved surfaces of spherical objects. By replacing spin-coated photoresist with a vapor-deposited, photodefinable polymer coating, we have now fabricated microstructured colloids with a wide range of surface patterns, including asymmetric and chiral surface structures, that so far were typically reserved for flat substrates. This high-throughput method can yield surface-structured colloidal particles at a rate of 10⁷ to 10⁸ particles per operator per day. Equipped with spatially defined binding pockets, microstructured colloids can engage in programmable interactions, which can lead to directed self-assembly. The ability to create a wide range of colloids with both simple and complex surface patterns may contribute to the genesis of previously unknown colloidal structures and may have important technological implications in a range of different applications, including photonic and phononic materials or chemical sensors.

biomaterials | chemical vapor deposition polymerization | polymer coatings | surface engineering | self-assembly

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0702749104/DC1.

^¶To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lahann{at}umich.edu

© 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

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