Surface-initiated polymerization on nanopatterns fabricated by electron-beam lithography

Micro- and nanopatterns of polymer brushes (see Figure) are fabricated using a top-down/bottom-up approach. A silicon surface is patterned with gold using lift-off electron-beam lithography (top-down), and the resulting pattern is then amplified by surf ace-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization (bottom-up) of N-isopropylacrylamide from an immobilized thiol initiator.