Novel hybrid adhesive material based on thiol-ene system for nano-conglutination technology

Nano-conglutination technology is a nonconventional nanofabrication technique to use adhesive materials to "stick" nanostructures, which relies on excellent properties of adhesive materials. In this article, we propose a novel hybrid material based on thiol-ene system as the adhesive material for nano-conglutination technology. Thiol-ene system is a kind of UV-curable polymer via "click reaction" to form cross-linked network, which is low viscosity, rapid polymerization rate, high Young's modulus, and low cost. High-resolution nanostructures such as nano-bowl and nanopillar arrays with sub-200 nm resolution are achieved using thiol-ene adhesive material via nano-conglutination technology. Special reactions of thiols with reactive carbon-carbon double bonds happen in the crosslink process, which make the thiol-ene system be enough low viscosity to keep conformal with the stuck nanostructures and be enough high rigid to easily separate from the mold and keep the original arrangement of nanostructures. This study promotes nanostructures for potential applications of optical, electronics, and photonic devices due to the surface plasmon resonance, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, electrical effect, and nonlinear optical response.