| abstract |
Fabrication of surfaces patterned with chemical crosslinkers for solution-phase immobilization of probe molecules and their use in diffraction-based sensing. In one embodiment of the invention, a chemical crosslinker, X1 - R1 -Y1, is deposited on areas of the substrate surface that defines a pattern and allowed to react with the surface for a sufficient period of time to attain the desired density of covalently linked crosslinkers on the surface. The reaction between the crosslinker X1 - R1 - Y1 and the surface can be accelerated using known techniques such as heating, microwave irradiation, sonication, etc, to achieve the desired density in less time. In another embodiment of the invention, two or more other types of cross-linkers may also be laid down in patterns on the surface to detect for two or more other types of molecules in solution. |