Preparation of Self-Organized Mesoscale Polymer Patterns on a Solid Substrate: Continuous Pattern Formation from a Receding Meniscus

Abstract

Regular polymer patterns are formed from casting a dilute polymer solution on a solid substrate. Dissipative structures, e.g., convection patterns, fingering instabilities, and so on, are formed in the evaporation process of casting polymer films. Controlled production and manufacturing of patterned polymer films can be achieved when the evaporating solution edge, especially the meniscus region on the casting substrate, is formed under controlled casting conditions. In this report, we describe a computer‐controlled apparatus which has two precisely manipulated sliding glass plates. A narrow, thin liquid film of polymer solution with a receding meniscus is continuously supplied from a small gap between two glass plates (one sliding and the other stationary), and a patterned polymer film is subsequently formed on the stationary substrate from the evaporating solution edge. Several types of polymer patterns from various polymers are reproducibly prepared by changing preparation conditions such as sliding speed and polymer concentration.

Mesoscale Patterns Formed by Evaporation of a Polymer Solution in the Proximity of a Sphere on a Smooth Substrate: Molecular Weight and Curvature Effects

“…The average height of PS-60K aggregates was 204 and 126 nm for bigger and smaller PS dots, respectively ( Figure 2b). It is important to note that similar patterns were observed for other PS-60K samples at different concentrations (from 0.125 to 5 mg/mL), suggesting that (a) the formation of isolated, randomly dispersed PS-60K aggregates was governed by the dewetting 8 and (b) the force exerted by the deposition of PS-60K was not strong enough to pin the three-phase contact line (i.e., form a "coffee ring"). [18][19][20] Thus, the thin liquid film ruptured on the surfaces into randomly distributed PS dots to minimize the surface energy.…”

“…8,9 However, these self-organized structures are, in general, irregular. The evaporation is, in principle, a nonequilibrium process.…”

Self-organized Archimedean spiral pattern: Regular bundling of fullerene through solvent evaporation

“…Various methods of surface patterning have been developed for the "bottom-up" fabrication of functional structures [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Precipitation via the evaporation of solutions containing the aforementioned building blocks near the contact line at a meniscus produces regular periodic-stripe patterns.…”

Dynamical Model for the Formation of Patterned Deposits at Receding Contact Lines

“…Examples include the meniscus technique in a sphere-on-flat geometry [7,9], a controlled continuous supply of liquid between two sliding plates to maintain a meniscus-like surface [5] and dewetting forced by a pressure gradient [10]. Interestingly, besides the stripes parallel to the receding contact line, a variety of other patterns are observed, including regular orthogonal stripes [9], superpositions of orthogonal and parallel stripes [5], regular arrays of drops [5,14] and irregularly branched structures [14,15]. This behaviour is highly sensitive to the particular experimental setup and parameters.…”