Cooperative Solvent-Thermal Interactions Enable Multi-Material Nanotransfer Printing for Multi-Dimensional Molecular...

Scalable fabrication of sub-20 nm multi-material nanoarchitectures remains a key challenge due to material incompatibilities and integration complexity. Here, we introduce a cooperative solvent-thermal nanotransfer printing (ST-nTP) technique that enables single-step, high-resolution patterning of compositionally heterogeneous materials. The process exploits a synergistic interplay between solvent-induced polymer swelling and thermal-pressure-driven densification to achieve selective material transfer through partially open shadow masks. When combined with the directed self-assembly of block copolymers, ST-nTP produces hierarchical 3D multi-metal nanoarchitectures with nanoscale precision and spatial material selectivity. As a functional demonstration, these structures are deployed as tunable surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platforms. Distinct plasmonic responses across metal-wavelength combinations facilitate multi-dimensional molecular profiling, enabling the extraction of complementary vibrational signatures from complex biological analytes such as E. coli. This cooperative solvent-thermal nanofabrication strategy expands the design space for integrated nanostructures and offers a versatile route for advanced sensing, diagnostics, and optoplasmonic applications.