Well-deposition particle templating: Rapid mass-production of lithoparticles without mechanical imprinting

We develop Well-Deposition Particle Templating (W-DePT), a fast approach for mass-producing monodisperse shape-designed colloids, or LithoParticles. W-DePT is based on a single solid template that has been permanently etched in negative relief to provide one or more wells of desired shapes of particles. This " well-template" is coated with a sacrificial release layer, and the desired particle material, whether organic, inorganic, or metal, or a combination thereof, is deposited into the wells. By simply dissolving the sacrificial layer in a fluid, particles having the desired shapes can be released and the well-template can be re-used. Parallel production of many particles using multiple well templates is an inexpensive alternative to optical-exposure based approaches. The particles are released from the wells with greater than 99% efficiency, and they have less than 5% polydispersity. Using W-DePT, LithoParticles are made without either repeated optical exposure or imprinting, which involves mechanically contacting a patterned template with a second flat plate.