Highly wear-resistant ultra-thin per-fluorinated organic monolayers on silicon(111) surfaces

Highly Polymer‐Repellent yet Atomically Flat Surfaces Based on Organic Monolayers with a Single Fluorine Atom

“…This fouling was significantly reduced for all monolayers under study. As reported in our previous work, the interaction with an oxide colloid, the friction, and the susceptibility to wear all went down monotonously with an increasing number of F atoms: more F atoms (C 8 H 14 C 8 F 17 being the best) meant smaller adhesion and friction and less wear upon intense contact. In fact, we initially expected also better antifouling properties to be achieved by the monolayer with highest fluorine number in the tail compared to lowest fluorine (e.g., F17 > F3 > F1 > F0) .…”

“…The atomic flatness of even modified substrates allows us to consider the increase in surface roughness as indicator for the amount of adsorbed polymer. Such fluorine‐terminated alkyne monolayers with a varying number of fluorine atoms at a constant chain length on Si(111) have been reported by our group in previous work, displaying ultralow friction, anti‐adhesion and high wear‐resistance properties in air. In those studies, the C 8 F 17 chain was always the best functioning among the series of partially fluorinated alkyl chains.…”

Antifouling Properties of Fluoropolymer Brushes toward Organic Polymers: The Influence of Composition, Thickness, Brush Architecture, and Annealing

“…17,18 However, a common problem with such materials is their typically low substrate adhesion, as well as difficult processing due to low solubility in common organic solvents. The production of surfaces modified with covalently bound fluorine-containing monolayers 19,20 or fluorinated polymer brushes 21,22 would overcome all of above problems.…”

“…Yet, there is only very little literature on this topic that probes the mechanisms behind it down to a molecular level. , Basically, all reported studies use fouling-release coatings, such as fluorine-containing monolayers , or fluoropolymers, , to prevent nonspecific adsorption of polymer/plastic materials from surfaces. , These coatings are based on the concept that physical removal of fouling agents appears to be easiest from materials with low surface free energies. , However, a common problem with such materials is their typically low substrate adhesion, as well as difficult processing due to low solubility in common organic solvents. The production of surfaces modified with covalently bound fluorine-containing monolayers , or fluorinated polymer brushes , would overcome all of above problems.…”

Self-assembled monolayers of perfluoroalkylsilane on plasma-hydroxylated silicon substrates

“…Thus, various structures of monolayers consisting of perfluoroalkylsilanes have been developed to obtain lower surface energy layers or coatings. In contrast to the disorder fluorocarbon layers, a number of ordered perfluorinated monolayers with lower surface energy have been reported [35][36][37]. Two approaches can be adopted in order to reduce the surface energy of fluorinated silane assembled monolayers: One is to optimize the reaction conditions to fabricate ordered and uniform monolayers, which can avoid the side reaction during the assembly process.…”