Micro-fabrication of Carbon Structures by Pattern Miniaturization in Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Gel

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple, novel micro-fabrication method using resorcinol-formaldehyde gel to create miniaturized carbon micro-structures, enabling easier production of Carbon-MEMS and microfluidic devices.

Contribution

It presents a new technique for fabricating and miniaturizing carbon micro-structures through controlled drying and pyrolysis of RF gel, achieving about tenfold size reduction.

Findings

Successful fabrication of miniaturized carbon micro-structures.

Repeated cycles enable further miniaturization.

Method enhances fabrication toolbox for Carbon-MEMS.

Abstract

A simple and novel method to fabricate and miniaturize surface and sub-surface micro-structures and micro-patterns in glassy carbon is proposed and demonstrated. An aqueous resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) sol is employed for micro-molding of the master-pattern to be replicated, followed by controlled drying and pyrolysis of the gel to reproduce an isotropically shrunk replica in carbon. The miniaturized version of the master-pattern thus replicated in carbon is about one order of magnitude smaller than original master by repeating three times the above cycle of molding and drying. The micro-fabrication method proposed will greatly enhance the toolbox for a facile fabrication of a variety of Carbon-MEMS and C-microfluidic devices.