Nanocolloidal microarrays on chemically patterned substrates

The self-assembly of nanosized colloidal particles on patterned substrates offers a convenient way of building nanostructures in an efficient way through a bottom-up approach. Combining such self-assembly methods with conventional top-down micro- and nanofabrication methods may lead to new devices with a structural hierarchy ranging from the nano/molecular to the macroscopic level. In this work, the self-assembly of functionalized nanosized silica particles on chemically structured substrates is studied. A newly developed chemical patterning method offering good control of the surface chemistry is used to selectively bind functionalized nanocolloids at distinct spots on the surface. Such nanocolloidal microarrays offer the potential to be used to increase the sensitivity of existing biosensing applications due to the well-defined surface chemistry (of particle and substrate) and the highly increased surface area at the microspots where the nanocolloidal particles self-assemble.