Controlled syntheses of Ag–polytetrafluoroethylene nanocomposite thin films by co-sputtering from two magnetron sources

Abstract

Co-sputtering from two independent magnetron sources was used to prepare polymer–metal nanocomposite films. Both gradient films with increasing metal fraction and homogeneous composite films were produced from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and silver targets using a rotatable sample holder. The structure of the pure sputtered polymer as well as the composite structure was studied. Electrical properties of the composite material near the percolation threshold show the expected, sharp change in the resistivity from 107 Ω cm atsmall silver content to 10−3 Ω cm after percolation. The optical absorption in the visible region due to surface plasmon resonances also has a strong dependence on the metal content, showing a red shift of the absorption peak from 405 nm to more than 500 nm at higher silver content.

Microstructure evolution of Ti–Si–C–Ag nanocomposite coatings deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

“…The electrical properties can be explained with percolation models. The required Ag volume fraction to achieve conduction through percolation in an insulating matrix has been estimated to an Ag fraction of ~0.35 [43]. Here, the percolation is not in an insulating matrix, but in a low-conductivity one; hence, the model cannot be used completely.…”

Effect of gold alloying on stability of silver nanoparticles and control of silver ion release from vapor-deposited Ag–Au/polytetrafluoroethylene nanocomposites

“…Preparation of nanocomposites based on sputtering of polymers was reported by the group of Biederman before [17]. The sputtering process of PTFE results in the deposition of a highly crosslinked flouropolymer film where surface structure and contact angle determination were shown in our group's previous work of Schürmann et al [18] and Hassel et al [19]. The detailed procedure of polymer vapor deposition is described in our previous work [20].…”

Metal-Polymer Nanocomposites: (Co-)Evaporation/(Co)Sputtering Approaches and Electrical Properties

“…A well-established method to produce metal NPs/polymer composites is the co-depositions of polymers and metals [9,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54]. Co-evaporation and co-sputtering of a metal and of an organic component have been reported to produce functional polymer composites containing metal NPs.…”