Autophobic dewetting of a poly(methyl methacrylate) thin film on a silicon wafer treated in good solvent vapor.
The wettability of thin poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films on a silicon wafer with a native oxide layer exposed to solvent vapors is dependent on the solvent properties. In the nonsolvent vapor, the film spread on the substrate with some protrusions generated on the film surface. In the good solvent vapor, dewetting happened. A new interface formed between the anchored PMMA chains and the swollen upper part of the film. Entropy effects caused the upper movable chains to dewet on the anchored chains. The rim instability depended on the surface tension of solvent (i.e., the finger was generated in acetone vapor (gamma(acetone) = 24 mN/m), not in dioxane vapor (gamma(dioxane) = 33 mN/m)). The spacing (lambda) that grew as an exponential function of film thickness h scaled as approximately h(1.31), whereas the mean size (D) of the resulting droplets grew linearly with h.
Xue
Longjian
L
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, PR China.
Han
Yanchun
Y