Metal patterned highly oriented pyrolytic graphite as a template for direct polymer molding

Fractal Pd islands have been used to demonstrate that a metal patterned highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) is a suitable template for direct molding of cavities and channels on elastomeric polymeric materials. Due to the low reactivity of the surface the method requires neither substrate surface modification nor subsequent steps so that it is very simple and inexpensive. Features larger than 20 nm in size can be easily transferred from the template to the mold. Damage was observed neither in the patterned polymeric material nor in the HOPG template after release of the polymer film.