Designing Nanostructured Organic-Based Material by Combining Plasma Polymerization and the Wrinkling Approach.

peer reviewedIn this work, an innovative and versatile strategy for the fabrication of nanostructured organic thin films is established based on the wrinkling phenomenon taking place in a bilayer system constituted by a liquid plasma polymer film (PPF) and a top Al coating. By means of morphological characterization (i.e., atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy), it has been demonstrated that the wrinkle dimensions (i.e., wavelength and amplitude) evolve as a function of the PPF thickness according to models established for conventional polymers. The wrinkled surfaces exhibit great stability over time as their dimension did not vary after 100 days of aging, resulting from a pinning phenomenon between the Al layer and the Si substrate, hence freezing the morphology. In a second step, the wrinkled surfaces have been employed as templates for the deposition of an additional PPF third layer, giving rise to the formation of a nanostructured organic-based surface. The chemical composition of the material can be tuned through an appropriate choice of precursor (i.e., allyl alcohol or propanethiol)

An innovative approach for micro/nano structuring plasma polymer films

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The wrinkling concept applied to plasma deposited polymer-like thin films: a promising method for the fabrication of flexible electrodes

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The wrinkling concept applied to plasma deposited polymer-like thin films: a promising method for the fabrication of flexible electrodes

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The influence of the substrate temperature on the growth mechanism of amine- and thiol-based plasma polymers: A comparative study

peer reviewedThis work aims to provide new insights into the link between the growth mechanisms of functionalized plasma polymer films (PPFs) and the substrate temperature (TS). By means of AFM-based techniques, it has been demonstrated that the mechanical behavior of the coatings is dramatically affected by TS and the precursor employed (i.e., 1-propanethiol or 1-propylamine). While propylamine-based PPFs behave as hard elastic materials regardless of TS, propanethiol-based PPFs evolve from viscous liquids to elastic solids with increasing TS. This behavior can be understood considering the glass transition temperature of PPF. For both precursors, the latter is correlated to the cross-linking density controlled through the energy density brought by positive ions to the growing film

Investigating the relationship between the mechanical properties of plasma polymer-like thin films and their glass transition temperature

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Investigating the relationship between the mechanical properties of plasma polymer-like thin films and their glass transition temperature

peer reviewe