Microcontact printing with heavyweight inks

Thioether derivatives with 1-4 thioether moieties were used as inks in microcontact printing on gold for the reproduction of patterns as they combine good monolayer quality with synthetic versatility, and high molecular weights. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold of compounds 1 and 2 had a quality comparable to SAMs of decanethiol, both regarding monolayer order and etch resistance. Etch resistances of SAMs of 3 and 4 were lower. Resulting structures after etching of patterned SAMs using 1, 2, and 3 were of good quality for patterns with feature sizes on the same stamp ranging from 1-200 µm. Patterns of 4 were not reproduced. Overall, compounds 1 and 2 are good candidates for low-diffusion inks