In Situ Chemical Patterning Technique

Abstract Plasmonic nanochemistry is employed to develop a chemical patterning technique for multiscale distributed plasmonic nanoparticle (NP) arrays by a spatial confined in situ growth process. Ag NPs grow exclusively following the maximum plasmonic field areas of Au nanohole arrays under light illumination, and Ag NP‐assembly arrays (NAAs) with controllable morphology from nanoring to nanodisk are realized precisely. Combining with conventional photolithography, letters, and patterns ranging from macroscopic to sub‐microscale are accurately obtained. The region‐specific generated Ag NAAs acted as an excellent surface‐enhanced Raman scattering substrate to realize quantitative detection and Raman imaging, which are further applied to multilevel encryption applications. Moreover, the lithography strategy shows good universality where it can be utilized to fabricate Au NAAs and polypyrrole nanodisks, and applied on flexible polydimethylsiloxane and curved glass substrates. Overall, this lithography strategy has good general applicability to obtain a multiscale engineered large‐area array of colloidal metallic NPs and organic polymers without the presence of either heat or specific adhesive layers, thus offers an approach to plasmonic engineering for a myriad of applications ranging from plasmonic anti‐counterfeit labels to electrical devices.