Abstract
This paper describes the use of soft lithography; which is used to pattern highly oriented polyacetylene (HOPA) thin films onto substrates via solventless ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) and the subsequent pyrolytic conversion of the HOPA film into a diamond-like carbon film. The term soft lithography refers to a set of simple microfabri-cation techniques that were developed during the last decade. It is a useful and convenient procedure for creating patterned surfaces on the micro- or nanometer scales for applications in chemistry and biology and in microelectronics and engineering. For example, soft lithography has been used to make mi-crofluidic devices for cell patterning, in order to selectively deposit proteins on substrates for cell adhesion, to build microstructures of metal oxides for waveguides, to create microstrutures of colloids for photonic bandgap materials, and to pattern electroactive polymers for organic transistors and light-emitting diodes. In these patterning processes, water or hydrophilic solvents are generally used in order to prevent the swelling of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamps that is caused by organic solvents (e.g., hexane, chloroform, and tetrahydrofuran), which limits the scope of the polymers that can be patterned on substrates by soft lithography. To avoid this complication, we have developed a process that combines soft lithography and solventless polymerization and allows patterning of a variety of polymers, including poly(norbornene). To explore the scope of the combina- tion of soft lithography and solventless polymerization, we used this method to pattern HOPA.