Imprinting step

The semi-covalent approach combines the advantages of the previous two methods, employing reversible covalent bonds in the imprinting step and noncovalent interactions in the recognition process, after the cleavage of the template from the polymer. 

The semi-covalent" and sacrificial spacer approaches of imprinting bear similarities to the covalent imprinting approach, at least in the imprinting step, where the template is covalently bound to the functional monomer. In the latter approach, labile covalent bonds, such as carbonates... 

The technique of using templates during the polymerization of phenols, thiols, and anilines was also used successfully to produce imprinted polymers. Besides phenol, various other monomers (p-substituted phenols, aniline, 4-aminophenyl ethanol, and thiol) were polymerized in buffer solution in the presence of Cu(II), Ni(II), or Fe(III). The corresponding polymers displayed selectivity in binding to the metal, which was used in the imprinting step against the other three metals used for the screening [106]. It has... 

Transfer printing is very versatile and may be used to print both thermoplastics or thermoset resins on both rigid and flexible surfaces, and even on nonplanar or patterned ones. In some cases post-imprinting steps are required to remove the residual layer which may appear in some techniques. 

By tailoring temperature and pressure during the imprinting step, different pattern situations may be achieved [9,19, 20]. With high pressure and temperature higher than Tg, the whole polymer film is transferred and covers both raised and... 

Lastly, some TP techniques are inherently residue-free, meaning that only the patterns are transferred to the substrate and no pre- or post-imprinting step is required to remove the residual layer In this category are the inking mode of RNi, RNsi, and DTM. 

Guo et have developed a novel method to fabricate enclosed nanochannels without the need for a cumbersome sealing technique. This method follows the standard NIL fabrication scheme and simply decreases the thickness of the polymer resist on the substrate such that the mold feamres will not be completely filled during the imprinting step. Figure 15 shows the self-sealing process by which the nanochannels were fabricated and an SEM image of nanochannels with dimensions of 75 nm x 120 nm that were fabricated by this technique. 

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