Issue 10, 2009
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Investigation of the dewetting inhibition mechanism of thin polymer films

Lin Xu,ab   Xifei Yu,a   Tongfei Shi*a  and  Lijia An*a  

* Corresponding authors

a State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China
E-mail: tfshi@ciac.jl.cn, ljan@ciac.jl.cn
Fax: +86-431-85262969
Tel: +86-431-85262137

b Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China

Abstract

The mechanism of inhibition of polymer film dewetting is investigated by adding a star comb-like polymer, four-arm P(S-ran-VB-g-PMMA), to PS film and PMMA film on different substrates. It is found that the mechanism of inhibition of polymer film dewetting is kinetic in nature, and is related to the miscibility between the additional compound and the polymer film. On addition to the miscible system [four-arm P(S-ran-VB-g-PMMA) and PMMA], the star comb-like polymers can increase the resistant force of dewetting with hole growth and inhibit the dewetting process of the thin polymer film by enrichment in the rim. To the immiscible system [four-arm P(S-ran-VB-g-PMMA) and PS], firstly the four-arm P(S-ran-VB-g-PMMA) enriches the solid substrate and forms nanodroplets in the process of spin-coating, and then PS film dewets on these nanodroplets; however, the star comb-like polymer can inhibit the dewetting of the polymer film only when the contact angle θ of the polymer on the additional four-arm P(S-ran-VB-g-PMMA) is smaller than that of the polymer on the substrate.

Graphical abstract: Investigation of the dewetting inhibition mechanism of thin polymer films

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B818824F
Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Oct 2008
Accepted
17 Mar 2009
First published
16 Apr 2009

Soft Matter, 2009,5, 2109-2116

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Investigation of the dewetting inhibition mechanism of thin polymer films

L. Xu, X. Yu, T. Shi and L. An, Soft Matter, 2009, 5, 2109 DOI: 10.1039/B818824F

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