Hydrophilic poly(dimethylsiloxane) stamps for microcontact printing

A technique to prepare micropatterned poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamps with a hydrophilic surface was demonstrated. The technique used stamps cured on and released from a patterned mold to print molecules from an ink onto a substrate. Printing of polar complexes onto a substrate allowed selective electroless deposition (ELD) of a metal. The O2 plasma treated stamps remained stable under ultra high vacuum (UHV) conditions to carry out reproducible X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments.