A synthetic surface that undergoes spatiotemporal remodeling.

The ability to undergo spatially resolved remodeling within defined time domains is one of the ubiquitous features of nature. In fact, essentially any biological structure undergoes defined molecular interactions and exhibits lateral mobility within defined time domains. The impartment of surface mobility has therefore emerged as one of the key challenges, when engineering synthetic analogues of natural biointerfaces. Herein, we report a synthetic analogue based on self-assembled monolayers that can undergo spatial remodeling on demand, thereby mimicking nature's spatiotemporally controlled biointerfaces. First, we created microstructured surfaces, where the structural differences between regions originated from differences in the molecular density of the nanofilm, while the chemical composition of all regions remained identical. We then demonstrated thermally controlled, lateral mobility of thiolates between different regions of density and found that there exists appropriate threshold temperatures, from where continuous lateral diffusion of thiolates may occur within the plane of the gold surface until steady-state equilibrium with an average surface density is reached. The ability to remodel interfaces on demand is a key characteristic of natural systems, which we now begin to mimic through synthetic model systems. Engineered biointerfaces, which can undergo spatially and temporally controlled remodeling, will be of utmost importance for a range of applications including molecular devices, biosensors, and future biomaterials.