Nowadays, with the rapid development of portable electronics, wearable electronics, LEDs, microelectronics, and bioelectronics, the fabrication of metallic circuits onto polymer substrates with strong adhesion property is an ever-increasing challenge. In this study, the high-resolution and well-defined metallic circuits were successfully prepared on the polymer surface via laser direct structuring (LDS) based on copper hydroxyl phosphate [Cu(OH)PO], and the key mechanism of the selective metallization was systematically investigated. XPS confirmed that Cu (elemental copper) was formed through photochemical reduction reaction of Cu(OH)PO, after 1064 nm NIR pulsed laser irradiation. During the electroless plating, because it is the important active catalytic center, this newly formed Cu was the key factor to achieve the successful selective metallization. SEM revealed that after the electroless plating, the copper layer actually physically anchored into the polymer substrate, giving an excellent mechanical adhesion property of the obtained metallic patterns. In addition, the micro-Raman surface imaging approved the generation of the amorphous carbon on the polymer composites' surface after NIR laser irradiation, and the chemical reaction region caused by the pulsed laser spot was found at approximately 40 μm. This environmentally friendly and effective strategy for fabricating circuit patterns on the polymer surface has a possible application in the printed circuit plate (PCB) industry.

This study developed a simple way to achieve legible and local controllable patterning for polymers based on a near-infrared (NIR) pulsed laser. The polycarbonate-coated nano antimony-doped tin oxide (nano ATO) was designed as a core-shell structure that was tailored to be responsive to a 1064 nm NIR laser. The globular morphology of polycarbonate-coated nano ATO with a diameter of around 2-3 μm was observed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. This core-shell structure combined the excellent photothermal conversion efficiency of nano ATO and the high char (carbon) residue of polycarbonate. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results of a polymer-patterning plate after laser irradiation demonstrated that, through local controlled photochromism, the well-defined legible patterns can be fabricated on the polymer surfaces contribute to the synergistic effect consisting of polycarbonate carbonization and nano ATO photothermal conversion. Furthermore, polymers doped with a minimal content of polycarbonate-coated nano ATO can achieve a remarkable patterning effect. This novel laser-patterning approach will have wide promising applications in the field of polymer NIR pulsed-laser patterning.

Atomic layer deposition of ruthenium is studied as a barrierless metallization solution for future sub-10 nm interconnect technology nodes. We demonstrate the void-free filling in sub-10 nm wide single damascene lines using an ALD process in combination with 2.5 Å of ALD TiN interface and postdeposition annealing. At such small dimensions, the ruthenium effective resistance depends less on the scaling than that of Cu/barrier systems. Ruthenium effective resistance potentially crosses the Cu curve at 14 and 10 nm according to the semiempirical interconnect resistance model for advanced technology nodes. These extremely scaled ruthenium lines show excellent electromigration behavior. Time-dependent dielectric breakdown measurements reveal negligible ruthenium ion drift into low-κ dielectrics up to 200 °C, demonstrating that ruthenium can be used as a barrierless metallization in interconnects. These results indicate that ruthenium is highly promising as a replacement to Cu as the metallization solution for future technology nodes.

Exposure to CH(2)Cl(2) at room temperature induces single-crystal to single-crystal transformation of the 2D coordination network [Zn(2)L(DMF)(4)]·2DMF·4H(2)O to the 3D metal-organic framework [Zn(2)L(H(2)O)(2)]·xsolv via dimerization of the metal-connecting points, leading to significant enhancement in framework stability, porosity, and H(2) uptake capacity.

A novel method for the fabrication of porous poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffolds by combining thermally induced phase separation and porogen leaching is presented in this article. Big pores with about 75-400 lm diameters in the obtained scaffolds were generated by the porogen, sucrose particles, while small pores with diameters less than 20 lm induced via phase separation. Extraction of the solvent, chloroform by ethanol at cool temperatures could reduce the scaffold toxicity. Effects of PLGA concentration, freezing temperature, volume fraction of porogen, and introduction of b-tricalcium phosphate (b-TCP) on morphology, porosity, and compressive properties of the scaffolds were systematically discussed. Results showed that the size of small pores decreased by decreasing the polymer concentration and reducing the freezing temperature, whereas the interconnectivity of the scaffolds was improved by increasing the porogen fraction. The compressive modulus and strength were significantly lowered by increasing the scaffold porosity, that is, by increasing porogen fraction, or decreasing the polymer concentration, or reducing the freezing temperature. Addition of b-TCP into the scaffolds did not influence the compressive modulus significantly but tended to decrease the compressive strength. The obtained scaffolds with diverse pore sizes would be potentially used in bone tissue engineering.

Recently, metallization on polymer substrates has been given more attention due to its outstanding properties of both plastics and metals. In this study, the metal oxide composite of copper-chromium oxide (CuO·CrO) was incorporated into the polymer matrix to design a good laser direct structuring (LDS) material, and the well-defined copper pattern (thickness =10 μm) was successfully fabricated through selective metallization based on 1064 nm near-infrared pulsed laser activation and electroless copper plating. We also prepared polymer composites incorporated with CuO and CrO; however, these two polymer composites both had very poor capacity of selective metallization, which has no practical value for LDS technology. In our work, the key reasons causing the above results were systematically studied and elucidated using XPS, UV-vis-IR, optical microscopy, SEM, contact angle, ATR FTIR, and so on. The results showed that 54.0% Cu in the polymer composite of CuO·CrO (the amount =5 wt %) is reduced to Cu (elemental copper) after laser activation (irradiation); however, this value is only 26.8% for the polymer composite of CuO (the amount =5 wt %). It was confirmed that to achieve a successful selective metallization after laser activation, not only was the new formed Cu (the catalytic seeds) the crucial factor, but the number of generated Cu catalytic seeds was also important. These two factors codetermined the final results of the selective metallization. The CuO·CrO is very suitable for applications of fabricating metallic patterns (e.g., metal decoration, circuit) on the inherent pure black or bright black polymer materials via LDS technology, which has a prospect of large-scale industrial applications.

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Graphene has been successfully applied to the field of polymer laser patterning. As an efficient 1064 nm near-infrared (NIR) pulsed laser absorber, only 0.005 wt % (50 ppm) of graphene prepared by mechanical exfoliation endowed polymer materials with very good NIR pulsed laser patterning. Optical microscopy observed that the generated black patterns came from the local discoloration of the polymer surface subjected to the laser irradiation, and the depth of the discolored layer was determined to be within 221-348 μm. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that the polymer surface discoloration was contributed by the local carbonization of polymers caused by graphene due to its high photothermal conversion capacity. Raman depth imaging successfully detected that the generated carbon in the discolored layer was composed of amorphous carbon and complex sp/sp-carbon compounds containing C≡C or conjugated C═C/C≡C structures. This study also provides a simple guideline to fabricate laser-patterning polymer materials based on graphene. We believe that graphene has broad application prospects in the field of polymer laser patterning. Importantly, this work opens up a valuable, feasible direction for the practical application of this new carbon material.