Fabrication of Nanocone Array using Soft Lithography Technique for Antimicrobial Application

Abstract

The topography structures on cicada and dragonfly wings exhibit bactericidal properties on the surface upon contact with microbes. Inspired by the naturally-occurring surface micro- and nanostructures, several researchers have investigated the fabrication of these micro- and nanoscale structures in recent years. In this study, an electron beam lithography was employed to produce the desired pattern using photoresist/silicon substrate as a master mold. The pattern was subsequently replicated on PDMS prepolymer using soft lithography technique, while FESEM and AFM were utilised for imaging purposes. Using this lithography technique, nanocones with a size dimension of 200 to 300 nm in base diameter and 150 nm in height for a 400 × 400 µm2 write-field size were successfully fabricated in approximately 2 hours.