International Summer School PROGRAM - Laboratoire d'Infochimie ...

From supramolecular chemistry to nanofabrication
D.N. Reinhoudt
Laboratory for Supramolecular Chemistry and Technology
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology
University of Twente
The Netherlands
Like in microelectronics, the fabrication of nanomaterials and -devices will
most likely start with the patterning of surfaces at the nanoscale. Individual
nanostructures can be manufactured most easily when confined to a surface.
Host-guest systems have been developed that make use of supramolecular
chemistry in water. Nanopatterning on self-assembled monolayers of βcyclodextrine
receptors (molecular printboards) can be achieved by
supramolecular nano-imprint lithography or DPN nanolithography.
Using the concept of multivalency, molecules can be anchored permanently or
in a dynamic regime. Several examples of the immobilization of biomolecules
at such surfaces will be discussed.
A second way to pattern surfaces uses dynamic covalent chemistry. This
methodology has the same advantages as supramolecular patterning, but can
easily be combined with irreversible confinement, e.g. by reduction of an imine
linker. The patterning of surfaces with proteins that selectively recognize
cancer cells will be discussed. In this work it was discovered that under
conditions of microcontact printing or dip pen nanolithography ,covalent
reactions are much faster than from solution.
This observation has been used in click chemistry at surfaces and applied for
the generation of DNA arrays.