Well‐Deposition Particle Templating: Rapid Mass‐Production of LithoParticles Without Mechanical Imprinting

We develop Well‐Deposition Particle Templating (W‐DePT), a fast approach for mass‐producing monodisperse shape‐designed colloids, or LithoParticles. W‐DePT is based on a single solid template that has been permanently etched in negative relief to provide one or more wells of desired shapes of particles. This “well‐template” is coated with a sacrificial release layer, and the desired particle material, whether organic, inorganic, or metal, or a combination thereof, is deposited into the wells. By simply dissolving the sacrificial layer in a fluid, particles having the desired shapes can be released and the well‐template can be re‐used. Parallel production of many particles using multiple well templates is an inexpensive alternative to optical‐exposure based approaches. The particles are released from the wells with greater than 99% efficiency, and they have less than 5% polydispersity. Using W‐DePT, LithoParticles are made without either repeated optical exposure or imprinting, which involves mechanically contacting a patterned template with a second flat plate.