Rigid, Vapor-Permeable Poly(4-methyl-2-pentyne) Templates for High Resolution Patterning of Nanoparticles and Polymers

Abstract

Soft lithography methods are emerging as useful tools for high-resolution, three-dimensional patterning of polymers and nanoparticles. However, the low Young's modulus of the standard template material, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), limits attainable resolution, fidelity, and alignment capability. While much research has been performed to find other more rigid polymer template materials, the high solvent and vapor permeability that is characteristic of PDMS is often sacrificed, preventing their use in those processes reliant on this property. In this work, a highly rigid, chemically robust, optically transparent and vapor-permeable poly(4-methyl-2-pentyne) template is developed. The combination of high rigidity and high vapor permeability enables high resolution patterning with simplified ink handling. This material was nanopatterned to create a template for patterning polymers and nanoparticles, achieving a resolution of better than 350 nm.

Application of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane to the stabilization and performance enhancement of poly(4‐methyl‐2‐pentyne) nanocomposite membranes for natural gas conditioning

“…The FTIR spectra of the pure PMP, nanoparticles (POSS and FS), and also the PMP–POSS and PMP–FS nanocomposite membranes with different nanoparticle contents are shown in Figure . We observed that different peaks appeared on the basis of the wave number, and the obtained results matched those reported in the literature well . In Figure , the PMP spectrum shows peaks around 3050, 2950, and 2870 cm −1 , which were attributed to CH stretching in CH 3 , and a peak at 1650 cm −1 , which was attributed to carbon–carbon double‐bond stretching.…”

“…We observed that different peaks appeared on the basis of the wave number, and the obtained results matched those reported in the literature well. 16,23,47,48 In Figure 5, the PMP spectrum shows peaks around 3050, 2950, and 2870 cm 21 , which were attributed to ACH stretching in CH 3 , and a peak at 1650 cm 21 , which was attributed to carbon-carbon doublebond stretching. Vibrations were revealed for the symmetric bending of ACH 3 at 1450 and 1320 cm 21 , CAC at 1200-950 cm 21 , ACH bending at 840 cm 21 , and ACH 3 bending at 740 cm 21 .…”

Steady microfluidic measurements of mutual diffusion coefficients of liquid binary mixtures

“…This opens the possibility of using many other analytical techniques such as fluorescence microscopy, small‐angle X‐ray scattering SAXS, Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy FTIR, or interferometry, to estimate precisely mutual diffusion coefficients for other liquid binary mixtures. Note also that the above methodology could be also extended to non‐aqueous binary mixtures using the pervaporation properties of PDMS to other solvents or provided that solvent‐compatible membranes can be embedded in microfluidic devices, as demonstrated for instance by Demko et al Finally, one could also probably measure mutual diffusion coefficients down to m 2 /s using the control of the evaporation rate q e imparted by the tunable geometry ( e , w , h ), ensuring that the one dimensional approximation implied in Eqs. and is still valid …”

Engineering polymer MEMS using combined microfluidic pervaporation and micro-molding

“…Over the past few years, we investigated in depth these mechanisms, mainly for aqueous dispersions of nanoparticles 23 and demonstrated successful fabrications of nanoparticle-dense assemblies, with applications ranging from optical metamaterials 24 to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates 25 . Demko et al 26,27 also reported similar works and extended the pervaporation technique to the use of non-aqueous dispersions, using the development of a solvent-compatible permeable matrix.

Fig. 1Fabrication process flow of multilayer polymer micro-structures. a (Left) Reversible sealing of dead-end channels embedded in a PDMS mold by a PDMS membrane.

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