Resist detachment from the substrate during mold-substrate separation is one of the key challengesfor nanoimprint lithography as the pitch of features decreases. We analyzed the problem by consideringthe surface and interfacial free energies of the initial state and the possible final states of the mold-polymer-substrate system and designed the chemistry of the system to provide the desired final state.We dramatically improved the resist adhesion to the substrate by assembling a monolayer of surface linkermolecules on the substrate surface. A 37 nanowire pattern at 30 nm half-pitch was imprinted onto thesurface-modified substrate.