A bioinspired permeable junction approach for sustainable device microfabrication

Microfabrication, the process of fabricating small structures usually in micrometre scale, has wide practical applications but confronts sustainability challenges due to the substantial chemical and energy consumption during the patterning and transfer stages. Here we introduce a bioinspired permeable junction approach involving patterning on biopolymer matrices with a salt-assisted photochemical synthesis to advance sustainable microfabrication. This approach leverages an ‘actuator-inhibitor-neutralizer’ process for on-demand adhesion and delamination. Utilizing water as a green actuation agent, our method realizes instantaneous delamination (<1 s) for patterned device transfer, far exceeding the efficacy of traditional technologies. This advancement boosts the roll-to-roll production speed and minimizes the consumption of energy and hazardous chemicals. The combination of sustainable substrates and hazards-free processing substantially lowers greenhouse gas emissions and reduces environmental impacts for device fabrication compared with traditional microfabrication methods. This approach is widely applicable to various device fabrication processes, ranging from bioelectronic devices to catalytic robotics. Overall, this work addresses the sustainability challenges of microfabrication, paving the way to environmentally friendly device fabrication. Microfabrication has an essential role in device fabrication but is accompanied by unfavourable environmental footprint. This study presents a bioinspired permeable junction approach for sustainable microfabrication, which eliminates the use of hazardous chemicals and minimizes energy consumption.