| The present work concentrates on the study of pattern generation and transfer processes of monolayer covered surfaces, deriving from the basic working concept of Constructive Lithography.;As an advancement of constructive lithography, we developed a direct, one-step printing (contact electrochemical printing, CEP) and replication (contact electrochemical replication, CER) of hydrophilic organic monolayer patterns surrounded by a hydrophobic monolayer background. In addition, we present a process of transfer of metal between two contacting solid surfaces to predefined monolayer template pattern sites (contact electrochemical transfer, CET).;This thesis shows that CEP, CER, and CET may be implemented under a variety of different experimental conditions, regardless of whether the initial "master" pattern was created by a parallel (fast) or serial (slow) patterning process. CEP and CER also posses the unique attractive property that each replica may equally function as master stamp in the fabrication of additional replicas. Moreover, due to a mechanism of self-correction patterned surfaces produced these process are often free of defects that the initial "master" stamp may had.;We finally show that the electrochemical patterning of OTS monolayers on silicon can be further extended to flexible polymeric substrate materials as well as to a variety of chemical manipulations, allowing the fabrication of tridimensional (3D) composite structures made on the basis of readily available OTS compound.;The results obtained suggest that such contact electrochemical processes could be used to rapidly generate multiple copies of surface patterns spanning variable length scales, this basic approach being applicable to rigid as well as flexible substrate materials. |
