Evolution and applications of polymer brush hypersurface photolithography

Hypersurface photolithography (HP) is a printing method for fabricating structures and patterns composed of soft materials bound to solid surfaces and with ∼1 micrometer resolution in the x, y, and z dimensions. This platform leverages benign, low intensity light to perform photochemical surface reactions with spatial and temporal control of irradiation, and, as a result, is particularly useful for patterning delicate organic and biological material. In particular, surface-initiated controlled radical polymerizations can be leveraged to create arbitrary polymer and block-copolymer brush patterns. Here we will review advances in instrumentation architectures that have made these hypersurfaces possible, and the investigations and development of surface-based organic chemistry and grafted-from photopolymerizations that have arisen through these investigations. Over the course of this discussion, we describe specific applications that have benefited from HP. By combining organic chemistry with the instrumentation developed, HP has ushered in a new era of surface chemistry that will lead to new fundamental science and previously unimaginable technologies.