Benchtop One‐to‐One Nanocontact Replication Across Length Scales from 100 nm to 10 cm via Ambient Polycarbonate Molding

Herein, a benchtop technique to create one‐to‐one plastic replicas of nanostructured “masters” of various materials and dimensions via polycarbonate (PC) molding under ambient conditions is described. Instead of conventional thermal molding of PC under high temperature and pressure, it is explored to adapt solvent‐assisted method that has been traditionally unpopular due to the alteration of its morphology induced by swelling and recrystallization. A thorough study of how polymer spherulites (spherical domains of semicrystalline polymer chains) develop and whether their growth can be inhibited by nanocontact molding is conducted; it demonstrated not only how molding drastically limits crystallization but also how the crystallization can be controlled in the process of replicating micro/nanostructures. The efficacy of one‐to‐one replication across length scales from 100 nm to 1 mm over large areas (>5 cm²) has been confirmed with high‐resolution scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The durable monolithic PC replicas can be used as templates for casting polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) devices, allowing expensive lithographically designed masters to be preserved and accelerating production by multiplexing. The simplicity and low cost of this benchtop approach augment the feasibility of nanofabrication in resource‐limited settings with reduced costs and processing time.