Nanopatterning of Plasma Polymer Thin Films by ArF Photolithography: Impact of Polymer Structure on Patterning Properties

Abstract

A simple method is developed for producing patterned polymer surfaces with reactive groups. This entails pulsed plasma deposition of anhydride functionalized films, followed by the covalent attachment of an amine‐terminated nucleophile via aminolysis reaction. Patterning is achieved by deep‐UV (DUV) irradiation using an ArF excimer laser (193 nm), allowing a fabrication of periodical structures with typical dimensions ranging from the nano‐ to microscale. The impact of the duty cycle during plasma polymer deposition and the impact of amine exposure time on the DUV response are investigated. Study of the relation between the polymer structure and photosensitivity allows a deeper understanding of the photoinduced mechanisms.

Mechanically Responsive Antibacterial Plasma Polymer Coatings for Textile Biomaterials

“…A change in the water contact angle (99–64°) occurred upon argon plasma treatment, indicating increased interactions with water. Maleic anhydride plasma polymer deposition produced a slight increase in the contact angle (up to 66°, a typical value reported in the literature for such plasma polymers) followed by a decrease after hydrolysis (14°) indicating here again increased interactions with water due to high surface coverage with carboxylic acid groups. A negligible change in thickness of the plasma polymer layer occurred after hydrolysis (Table ).…”

Effect of plasma duty cycle on silver nanoparticles loading of cotton fabrics for durable antibacterial properties

“…The concentration of acid groups available to interact with silver ions strongly depends on the initial concentration of anhydride groups in the plasma polymer. A general consensus in the maleic anhydride plasma polymerization literature is that the reactivity of the anhydride groups is strongly dependent on duty cycle t on /( t on + t off ) ratio, and differences in chemical properties are evident even when deposition is carried out under same nominal power P nom (i.e., P nom = P p [ t on /( t on + t off )]) . Changes in the duty cycle lead to significant changes in monomer fragmentation which influences significantly the final atomic composition of the plasma polymer layers.…”

“…A general consensus in the maleic anhydride plasma polymerization literature is that the reactivity of the anhydride groups is strongly dependent on duty cycle t on /(t on 1 t off ) ratio, and differences in chemical properties are evident even when deposition is carried out under same nominal power P nom (i.e., P nom 5 P p [t on /(t on 1 t off )]). 24,36,37 Changes in the duty cycle lead to significant changes in monomer fragmentation which influences significantly the final atomic composition of the plasma polymer layers. An increase in the duty cycle leads to an increase of fragmentations of the precursor molecule.…”

Applications and challenges of plasma processes in nanobiotechnology

“…This is why more conventional lithography techniques offer a large advantage, at the expense of time and cost. It has been shown that plasma polymers can be patterned by direct photolithography [51] but also with conventional processes using photoresists [36]. Nanopatterned surfaces can be as well fabricated by E-beam lithography using PMMA as resist [52,53,54].…”