title: Porosity and mechanical properties of mesoporous thin films assessed by environmental ellipsometric porosimetry.
abstract: Mesoordered silica thin films with cubic structures were prepared by evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) with two types of structuring agent (CTAB and block copolymer F127). A complete and accurate description of these films was obtained by combining 2D-SAXS analyses, variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, and a specially designed environmental ellipsometric porosimetry (EEP) experiment. The EEP analysis is rapid and cheap and operates at ambient pressure and temperature. This latter experiment was performed with water and produced a set of water adsorption-desorption isotherms. A modified Kelvin equation, coupled with a modelisation of pores contraction, enabled the determination of the structural parameters of films porous networks: ellipsoidal pore diameters, porous volume, and surface area. Young moduli of films in the direction perpendicular to the substrates were calculated from these parameters.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boissiere
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grosso
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lepoutre
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nicole
authors.forename: Aline Brunet
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Bruneau
authors.forename: Clément
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanchez