Advanced Materials, Vol.16, No.21, 1912-1912, 2004
Color micro- and nanopatterning with counter-propagating reaction-diffusion fronts
Thin films of ionically doped gelatin have been color-patterned with submicrometer precision using the wet-stamping technique. Inorganic salts are delivered onto the gelatin surface from an agarose stamp, and diffuse into the gelatine layer, producting deeply colored precipitates. Reaction fronts originating from different features of the stamp cease within < 1 mum of each other, leaving sharp, transparent regions in between.