Tailoring Highly Ordered Honeycomb Films Based on Ionomer Macromolecules by the Bottom-Up Approach

Abstract

A novel route to obtain highly ordered self-assembled honeycomb films has been investigated by a bottom-up process. A polymer with one chain end ionic functionality has been synthesized in a one-step reaction by nitroxide-mediated polymerization. This ionomer synthesis represents a very simple way, and honeycomb structured films have been observed after solvent evaporation in a long-range distance of few hundred microns in a very regular ordered arrangement. These films are simply prepared by spreading out polymers CS 2 solutions without additives over various substrates as well on inorganic surfaces as onto different polymeric substrates such as flexible PVC sheet or rigid PMMA plate. Different experimental parameters, such as polymer concentration or wet thickness, have been checked to tune the pores size and thus the honeycomb morphologies. An elegant technique based on reflected and transmitted light has been used to correlate the pores size inside and on the top of the film. This highly ordered hexagonal pattern on the polymeric surfaces suggests the possibility of taking advantage of the microtextures for inducing optical interferences but also to modify the color of this bioinspired material as a function of their visual angle as in nature.

The dominant role of the solvent–water interface in water droplet templating of polymers

“…6,10,[12][13][14][15] Here in this paper, we attempt to elucidate the mechanism by separating the behaviour of a pure solvent-water system from that of the nal polymer containing system. Critically, we demonstrate the contact angles at which droplets are stable at the solution-air interface remain unchanged from pure solvent systems to viscous polymer solutions.…”

Droplet condensation on polymer surfaces: A review

“…They investigated different experimental parameters' (polymer concentration or wet thickness) effects on pore size and thus the resultant honeycomb morphologies. 169 Sun and coworkers applied a one-step process by using a surfactant-encapsulated polyoxometalate in a PS solution to obtain hole-containing microporous PS films. The accumulation of the surfactant in these pores was achieved and an ordered and tight lamellar structure was obtained.…”

Breath Figures: Fabrication of Honeycomb Porous Films Induced by Marangoni Instabilities

“…As mentioned for experimental parameters influencing the pore size, both volume and concentration of the cast polymer solution can also modify the threedimensional organization of the pore array [79,101,102,106]. Indeed, for a given polymer/solvent system, low volume or concentration of polymer solution cast under humid atmosphere led to a single layer of pores while increasing the wet coating thickness by increasing either cast volume or polymer concentration resulted to multiple layers of pores ordered in three dimensions [88,101,106].…”

“…A first report related the presence of pore multilayer to the lower density of the water-immiscible solvent (toluene, benzene) in comparison with water as threedimensional pattern pores was assigned to successive sinking of condensed water droplets into the polymer solution [30]. However, multilayer structures have also been observed from solvent exhibiting a higher density than water (carbon disulfide and chloroform) [31,101,106,115,118]. Bolognesi et al [119] proposed a prediction model showing that the formation of monolayer or multilayer structures can be tuned by values of surface tensions of polymer solution and water but also by the interfacial tension between water and the polymer solution.…”