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Sarkar J, Madhusudanan M, V C C, Choyal S, Chowdhury M. Roles of aqueous nonsolvents influencing the dynamic stability of poly-( n-butyl methacrylate) thin films at biologically relevant temperatures. SOFT MATTER 2023; 19:8193-8202. [PMID: 37853806 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00812f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2023]
Abstract
Poly-(n-butyl methacrylate) (PnBMA) is an important polymer in biomedical applications. Here we study the stability of PnBMA thin films prepared on top of slippery silicon substrates and exposed to nonsolvent aqueous incubation media like water and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at temperatures relevant to biological applications (37 °C, 25 °C and 4 °C). Dewetting hole growth experiments allowed us to probe the instability in PnBMA films upon incubation followed by thermal annealing. From the early stage of dewetting hole growth dynamics, we inferred that the stability of the thin PnBMA films decreases as a function of the duration and temperature of incubation, even though the films were found not to readily dewet at room temperature after incubation. It is also observed that water incubation makes films more unstable than incubation in PBS. We explained our observations as a combined effect of (i) an increase in surface energy of the PnBMA film due to incubation, (ii) an increased destabilizing effect due to the dominant polar interactions between the incubation medium and the PnBMA film and (iii) the plasticization effect of PnBMA films by the incubation media. Plasticization resulted in a decrease in the modulus of PnBMA thin films as a function of incubation time. The viscosity of PnBMA films upon incubation was found to be coupled to the decreasing modulus. Thus we infer that incubation in common aqueous nonsolvents can detrimentally affect the stability of polymers limiting their specific usages through a complex interplay of multiple molecular level phenomena.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jotypriya Sarkar
- Lab of Soft Interfaces, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
| | - Mithun Madhusudanan
- Lab of Soft Interfaces, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
| | - Chandni V C
- Lab of Soft Interfaces, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
| | - Shilpa Choyal
- Center for Research in Nanotechnology and Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India
| | - Mithun Chowdhury
- Lab of Soft Interfaces, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
- Center for Research in Nanotechnology and Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India
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Hanzawa M, Ogura T, Akamatsu M, Sakai K, Sakai H. Enhanced Removal of Photoresist Films through Swelling and Dewetting Using Pluronic Surfactants. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2023; 39:14670-14679. [PMID: 37797199 PMCID: PMC10586462 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/07/2023]
Abstract
Organic photoresist coatings, primarily composed of resins, are commonly used in the electronics industry to protect inorganic underlayers. Conventional photoresist strippers, such as amine-type agents, have shown high removal performance but led to environmental impact and substrate corrosiveness. Therefore, this trade-off must be addressed. In this study, we characterized the removal mechanism of a photoresist film using a nonionic triblock Pluronic surfactant [poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)] in a ternary mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC), and water. In particular, the removal dynamics determined by using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring was compared with those determined by performing confocal laser scanning microscopy and visual observation to analyze the morphology, adsorption mass, and viscoelasticity of the photoresist film. In the absence of the Pluronic surfactant, the photoresist film in the ternary solvent exhibited a three-step process: (i) film swelling caused by the penetration of a good solvent (EC and PC), (ii) formation of photoresist particles through dewetting, and (iii) particle aggregation on the substrate. This result was correlated to the Hansen solubility parameters. The addition of the Pluronic surfactant not only prevented photoresist aggregation in the third step but also promoted desorption from the substrate. This effect was dependent on the concentration of the Pluronic surfactant, which influenced diffusion to the interface between the photoresist and the bulk solution. Finally, we proposed a novel photoresist stripping mechanism based on the synergy between dewetting driven by an EC/PC-to-water mixture and adsorption by the Pluronic surfactant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masaki Hanzawa
- NIKKOL
GROUP Nikko Chemicals Co., Ltd., 3-24-3 Hasune, Itabashi, Tokyo 174-0046, Japan
| | - Taku Ogura
- NIKKOL
GROUP Nikko Chemicals Co., Ltd., 3-24-3 Hasune, Itabashi, Tokyo 174-0046, Japan
- Research
Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo
University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
| | - Masaaki Akamatsu
- Research
Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo
University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
- Department
of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori 680-8552, Japan
| | - Kenichi Sakai
- Research
Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo
University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
- Department
of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
| | - Hideki Sakai
- Research
Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo
University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
- Department
of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
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Das A, Dey AB, Manna G, Sanyal MK, Mukherjee R. Nanoparticle-Mediated Stabilization of a Thin Polymer Bilayer. Macromolecules 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c00089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Anuja Das
- Instability and Soft Patterning Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India
| | - Arka Bikash Dey
- Surface Physics and Material Science Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700064, India
| | - Gouranga Manna
- Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560064, India
| | - Milan K. Sanyal
- Surface Physics and Material Science Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700064, India
| | - Rabibrata Mukherjee
- Instability and Soft Patterning Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India
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Golany Z, Weisbord I, Abo-Jabal M, Manor O, Segal-Peretz T. Polymer dewetting in solvent-non-solvent environment- new insights on dynamics and lithography-free patterning. J Colloid Interface Sci 2021; 596:267-277. [PMID: 33839353 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.02.092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Revised: 02/20/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
HYPOTHESIS We show that one may employ polymer dewetting in solvent-non-solvent environment to obtain lithography-free fabrication of well-defined nano- to micro- scale polymer droplets arrays from pre-patterned polymer films. The polymer droplet pattern may be converted to a series of hybrid organic-inorganic and inorganic well-defined nano-patterns by using sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS). In particular, we scrutinize the physical parameters which govern the dewetting of flat and striped polymer thin films, which is the key to obtaining our objective of lithography-free ordered nano-patterns. EXPERIMENTS We immerse polystyrene (PS) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) thin films in water in the presence of chloroform vapors. We study the ensuing polymer dewetting dynamics and the pattern formation of nanospheres by employing in-situ light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. We then investigate pattern formation by dewetting of polymer stripes, fabricated by directed solvent evaporation, and SIS of AlOx from vapor phase precursors, trimethyl aluminum (TMA) and H2O, within the nanosphere patterns. FINDINGS We find that solvent- non-solvent environments render film dewetting rates, which are an order of magnitude faster than solvent vapor dewetting, and supports the formation of small solid polymer droplets, down to sub-100 nm droplet size, of large contact angles with the solid substrate. Pre-patterned polymer film stripes support the formation of highly ordered structures of polymer droplets, which are easily transformed to hybrid polymer-AlOx nanosphere patterns and templated AlOx nanosphere via SIS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziv Golany
- The Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Inbal Weisbord
- The Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Mohammad Abo-Jabal
- The Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Ofer Manor
- The Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Tamar Segal-Peretz
- The Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel.
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Castel A, Gutfreund P, Cabane B, Rharbi Y. Stability of Fluid Ultrathin Polymer Films in Contact with Solvent-Loaded Gels for Cultural Heritage. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2020; 36:12607-12619. [PMID: 33044083 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c02162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The removal of ultrathin amorphous polymer films in contact with an aqueous gelled solution containing small amounts of good solvent is addressed by means of specular and off-specular neutron reflectometry. The distribution of heavy water and benzyl alcohol is revealed inside Laropal A81, often employed as a protective varnish layer for Culture Heritage in the restoration of easel paintings. The swelling kinetics, interface roughness, and film morphologies were recorded as a function of temperature and increasing benzyl alcohol concentration in the dispersion of Pemulen TR-2, a hydrophobically modified acrylic acid copolymer. The addition of small amounts of good solvent results in the appearance of water-filled cavities inside the varnish, which grow with time. It is shown that while increasing the solvent concentration greatly enhances the hole growth kinetics, an increase in temperature above the glass transition temperature does not have such a big effect on the kinetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amélie Castel
- Large Scale Structures Group, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble 38000, France
- Laboratoire de Rhéologie et Procédés, Grenoble 38000, France
| | - Philipp Gutfreund
- Large Scale Structures Group, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble 38000, France
| | | | - Yahya Rharbi
- Laboratoire de Rhéologie et Procédés, Grenoble 38000, France
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Xu L, Zhang H, Lu Y, An L, Shi T. The effects of solvent polarity on the crystallization behavior of thin π-conjugated polymer film in solvent mixtures investigated by grazing incident X-ray diffraction. POLYMER 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2020.122259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
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Castel A, Gutfreund P, Cabane B, Rharbi Y. Swelling, dewetting and breakup in thin polymer films for cultural heritage. SOFT MATTER 2020; 16:1485-1497. [PMID: 31930258 DOI: 10.1039/c9sm01976f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The removal of ultrathin amorphous polymer films in contact with nonsolvent/solvent binary mixtures is addressed by means of neutron reflectometry and atomic force microscopy. The high resolution of neutron scattering makes it possible to resolve the distribution profiles of heavy water and benzyl alcohol inside Laropal®A81, often employed as a protective varnish layer for Culture Heritage in restoration of easel paintings. The swelling kinetics and distribution profiles were recorded as a function of time and increasing benzyl alcohol concentration in water. The varnish film swells by penetration of the good solvent. At higher concentrations water-filled cavities appear inside the varnish and grow with time. Contrary to homogeneous dissolution dewetting is observed at late stages of exposure to the liquid which leads to the Breakup of the film. The high resolution measurements are compared to bulk behaviour characterized by the ternary phase diagram and the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters are calculated and used to predict the swelling and solvent partition in the films. Distinct differences of the thin film to bulk behaviour are found. The expectations made previously for the behaviour of solvent/non-solvent mixtures on the removal of thin layers in the restoration of easel paintings should be revised in view of surface interactions.
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Chen CY, Yang JH, Lin TY, Ma HY, Chen IC. Fabrication of local micro-contacts to silicon solar cells by dewetting of ultrathin polymer films. RSC Adv 2020; 10:5579-5584. [PMID: 35497457 PMCID: PMC9049242 DOI: 10.1039/c9ra10457g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
A local contact patterning process based on dewetting of 50 nm-thick polystyrene (PS) films has been developed for fabrication of silicon PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell) solar cells. Holey PS films with a random pattern of holes were prepared on dielectric passivated silicon wafers through the dewetting process, and then served as etch masks for selective plasma etching of dielectric passivation layers, in doing so metal contact patterns could be generated. The impact of local back contact formation on cell performance was studied as a function of the metallization fraction. This chemical-based patterning process, which broadens the applications of dewetting of polymer films, offers an interesting alternative to laser-based approaches as it may avoid silicon surface damage and lower the manufacturing costs. The application of this patterning technique to PERC fabrication could result in a preliminary efficiency of 13.5% with a V oc = 655 mV and a J sc = 38.4 mA cm-2. An apparent gain in conversion efficiency of 0.6% could be achieved compared to the full-area aluminum back surface field reference cell.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Yao Chen
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University Zhongli 320 Taiwan
| | - Jyun-Hao Yang
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University Zhongli 320 Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Yu Lin
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University Zhongli 320 Taiwan
| | - Hao-Yuan Ma
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University Zhongli 320 Taiwan
| | - I-Chen Chen
- Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University Zhongli 320 Taiwan
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11
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Zhang H, Xu L, Lai Y, Shi T. Influence of film structure on the dewetting kinetics of thin polymer films in the solvent annealing process. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2016; 18:16310-6. [PMID: 27254136 DOI: 10.1039/c6cp02447e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
On a non-wetting solid substrate, the solvent annealing process of a thin polymer film includes the swelling process and the dewetting process. Owing to difficulties in the in situ analysis of the two processes simultaneously, a quantitative study on the solvent annealing process of thin polymer films on the non-wetting solid substrate is extremely rare. In this paper, we design an experimental method by combining spectroscopic ellipsometry with optical microscopy to achieve the simultaneous in situ study. Using this method, we investigate the influence of the structure of swollen film on its dewetting kinetics during the solvent annealing process. The results show that for a thin PS film with low Mw (Mw = 4.1 kg mol(-1)), acetone molecules can form an ultrathin enriched layer between the PS film and the solid substrate during the swelling process. The presence of the acetone enriched layer accounts for the exponential kinetic behavior in the case of a thin PS film with low Mw. However, the acetone enriched layer is not observed in the case of a thin PS film with high Mw (Mw = 400 kg mol(-1)) and the slippage effect of polymer chains is valid during the dewetting process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huanhuan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
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Xu L, Zhang H, Ding M, Lai Y, Shi T. Influence of physical ageing on rim instability during solvent-induced dewetting of a thin polymer film. RSC Adv 2016. [DOI: 10.1039/c5ra24753e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Combining experiments with molecular dynamic simulation to examine the influence of physical ageing on rim instability during solvent-induced dewetting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Xu
- Laboratory of Surface Physics and Chemistry
- Guizhou Normal College
- Guiyang 550018
- P. R. China
- Guizhou Synergetic Innovation Center of Scientific Big Data for Advanced Manufacturing Technology
| | - Huanhuan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
- Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Changchun 130022
- P. R. China
| | - Mingming Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
- Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Changchun 130022
- P. R. China
| | - Yuqing Lai
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
- Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Changchun 130022
- P. R. China
| | - Tongfei Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
- Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Changchun 130022
- P. R. China
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