ZnO vapor phase infiltration in photo-patternable polyacrylates
Lisanne Demelius
https://tugraz.webex.com/tugraz/j.php?MTID=m2790c3d2a9a49c31369978e2a76de31c
11:15 - 12:15 Wednesday 20 March 2024 Vapor phase infiltration (VPI) is an emerging technique that allows for the fabrication of hybrid organic-inorganic materials by infiltrating polymers with gaseous metalorganic precursors while preserving the original polymer’s macroscale form and microstructure. Notably, VPI is capable of forming hybrid materials across multiple length scales (from thin films to macroscale objects) and has shown huge potential in modifying material properties such as mechanical strength, chemical stability, and optical and triboelectric properties. Under ideal process conditions, a perfectly uniform distribution of inorganic species in the polymer matrix can be achieved that exhibits self-limiting saturation behavior similar to atomic layer deposition (ALD).
Although VPI processes have been studied for several inorganic compounds (e.g. Al$_2$O$_3$, ZnO, TiO$_2$) and polymers, to date, little attention has been paid to the potential of their integration with existing nano- and micropatterning techniques as a means of top-down property modification of patterned polymer structures.
The results presented in this talk seek to address this gap by focusing on VPI of ZnO into highly crosslinked polyacrylate systems that can be patterned by photolithography and direct laser writing. The effect of different process parameters and polymer functional groups on inorganic loading and infiltration depth is explored. A detailed study of process kinetics demonstrates how the precursor diffusivity can be enhanced by increasing the flexibility of the polymer network (e.g. by copolymerizing with monomers that have longer side chains).
Finally, selective infiltration of ZnO into a photolithographically patterned well-infiltrating polyacrylate on non-infiltrating poly(methyl methacrylate) (pMMA) is demonstrated illustrating the potential of VPI for advanced maskless patterning strategies.
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Institute of Solid State Physics
