In this article, a facile static breath-figure (BF) method to prepare highly ordered polystyrene (PS) thin films was reported. The static process was robust and tolerated more variability in casting conditions, although non-polar linear PS was not believed to be a good candidate for the BF technique. In the following UV irradiation, not only were the microporous structures well preserved, but also thermal and chemical resistance of the films was significantly improved due to the cross-linkage. Moreover, the surface wettability was changed from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity. The cross-linked honeycomb structured PS films became resistant to a wide range of organic solvents and thermally stable up to 250 C, an increase of more than 150 K as compared to the uncross-linked films. The simple cross-linking operation opened the door to facilely fabricate robust and low-cost microporous polymer films.

Here, we show a facile and versatile method to prepare highly ordered inorganic patterns on solid substrates by pyrolyzing UV cross-linked polymer/functional precursor hybrid films. The crosslinked polymer matrix acted as structure-directing agent in a pyrolyzing process, whereas the functional precursor was converted into the skeleton of the micropatterns. The inorganic micropatterns could be further catalytically functionalized to grow CNT and ZnO nanorod arrays by simply changing different functional precursors. This simple technique offers new prospects in the field of micropatterns, nanolithography, and template.

Here, we show a facile and versatile method preparing highly ordered ceramic microstructures on solid substrates by pyrolyzing UV cross-linked copolymer films to circumvent the expensive lithographic technique. The employed block copolymer, poly(dimethylsiloxane)-block-polystyrene (PDMS-b-PS), in this study was synthesized by controlling radical polymerization. The highly ordered microporous polymer films were formed using a static breath figure process. After 4 h UV irradiation, the PS composition was effectively cross-linked. The cross-linked microporous polymer matrix served as a structure-directing agent in the following pyrolysis process, in which the PDMS composition was converted into silica to form honeycomb structured micropatterns on the substrate. The chemical components of the ceramic microstructures were adjusted by simply mixing different functional precursors. Moreover, the ceramic microstructures on substrate could be replicated to prepare textured PDMS stamps. This simple technique offers new prospects in the fields of micropatterns, soft lithography and templates.

No abstract

Patterning is of paramount importance in many areas of modern science and technology. As a valuable part in miniaturized devices, large-scale aligned CNTs with serial port configuration is highly desirable. Here, we reported that the synthesis of a pair of patterned carbon nanotubes with the shape of serial port by CVD starting from different breath figure templates, cross-linked polymer matrix and ferrous inorganic micropatterns. The growth mechanism of the isolated CNT bundles is attributed to the selectively interfacial aggregation of the ferrocene to the walls of the cavities, a so-called Pickering-emulsion effect, whereas the honeycomblike skeleton of the dense CNT arrays develop from the catalytically functionalized hexagonal edges. This synthesis strategy exemplifies a new possibility for making use of CNTs to fabricate functional carbons with unique geometry or specific properties in a controllable way. We expect that the methodology can be also applied onto the fabrication of patterned graphene.

Highly ordered microporous films containing polyolefin segment were successfully fabricated via the breath-figure (BF) method using well-defined polymethylene-b-polystyrene (PM-b-PS) diblock copolymers in CS 2 under a static humid condition. The effects of molecular weight of diblock copolymers, relative humid, fabrication method and temperature on the morphology of film are investigated. The honeycomb porous films with different pore size (1.2-2.5 mm) were obtained by using PM-b-PS with different PM : PS ratio. The thick (7 mm) and thin (2 mm) films were fabricated via a different process. The film with a pothole-like structure was fabricated when using PM-b-PS with the shortest PS segment. Smaller satellite pores were found to surround the regular micropores of honeycomb films when the BF process was carried out at 28 C.

No abstract

No abstract