Selective dip-coating of chemically micropatterned surfaces

We characterize the selective deposition of liquid microstructures on chemically heterogeneous surfaces by means of dip coating processes. The maximum deposited film thickness depends critically on the speed of withdrawal as well as the pattern size, geometry, and angular orientation. For vertically oriented hydrophilic strips, we derive a hydrodynamic scaling relation for the deposited film thickness which agrees very well with interferometric measurements of dip-coated liquid lines. Due to the lateral confinement of the liquid, our scaling relation differs considerably from the classic Landau-Levich formula for chemically homogeneous surfaces. Dip coating is a simple method for creating large area arrays of liquid microstructures for applications involving chemical analysis and synthesis, biochemical assays, or wet printing of liquid polymer or ink patterns. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)07122-X].