Development of SiO2 UV-curable materials and their fine-patterning using sol-gel method

Abstract

UV curing hybrid materials via the photo polymerization have significant significance for the lithography fields due to the high resolution. In this work, the UV-curable SiO₂ materials with chelating compound structure are synthesized by photosensitive Sol–Gel approach, which have a wide absorption band at 267 nm. With the UV light irradiation, the chelating compound structure decomposes and the solubility of the film in organic solvent decreases. Based on this premise, the presented material exhibits the ability to fabricating highly ordered SiO₂ microarrays on several substrates through UV photolithography. The SiO₂ micro arrays can be used to as templates to prepare noble metal micro-structures, which own wide potential application prospects in highly ordered SERS substrates with high activity and reproductivity for trace detection.