Hierarchically Ordered Nanopatterns for Spatial Control of Biomolecules

• Published in: ACS nano Vol. 8; no. 11; pp. 11846 - 11853
• Main Authors: Tran, Helen, Ronaldson, Kacey, Bailey, Nevette A, Lynd, Nathaniel A, Killops, Kato L, Vunjak-Novakovic, Gordana, Campos, Luis M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 25.11.2014; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: Annealing; BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; Biomolecules; block copolymer self-assembly; Block copolymers; Cells, Cultured; Cylinders; dual protein patterning; hierarchical patterns; Humans; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Microscopy, Atomic Force; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Polystyrenes - chemistry; Proteins - chemistry; Self assembly; Strategy; Tuning; block copolymer self-assembly; hierarchical patterns; dual protein patterning
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/nn505548n

The development and study of a benchtop, high-throughput, and inexpensive fabrication strategy to obtain hierarchical patterns of biomolecules with sub-50 nm resolution is presented. A diblock copolymer of polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide), PS-b-PEO, is synthesized with biotin capping the PEO block and 4-bromostyrene copolymerized within the polystyrene block at 5 wt %. These two handles allow thin films of the block copolymer to be postfunctionalized with biotinylated biomolecules of interest and to obtain micropatterns of nanoscale-ordered films via photolithography. The design of this single polymer further allows access to two distinct superficial nanopatterns (lines and dots), where the PEO cylinders are oriented parallel or perpendicular to the substrate. Moreover, we present a strategy to obtain hierarchical mixed morphologies: a thin-film coating of cylinders both parallel and perpendicular to the substrate can be obtained by tuning the solvent annealing and irradiation conditions.