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Nanoparticles for dewetting suppression of thin polymer films used in chemical sensors

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Abstract

Addition of fullerenes (C60 or buckyballs) to a linear polymer has been found to eliminate dewetting when a thin (∼50 nm) film is exposed to solvent vapor. Based on neutron reflectivity measurements, it is found that the fullerenes form a coherent layer approximately 2 nm thick at the substrate – polymer film interface during the spin-coating process. The thickness and relative fullerene concentration (∼29 vol%) is not altered during solvent vapor annealing and it is thought this layer forms a solid-like buffer shielding the adverse van der Waals forces promoted by the underlying substrate. Several polymer films produced by spin- or spray-coating were tested on both silicon wafers and live surface acoustic wave sensors demonstrating fullerenes stabilize many different polymer types, prepared by different procedures and on various surfaces. Further, the fullerenes drastically improve sensor performance since dewetted films produce a sensor that is effectively inoperable.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Doug Adkins, Jim Spates, Daniel Barfoot, Joy Byrnes and Dave Wheeler, as well as the others working on the development of the μChemLabTM at Sandia National Laboratories for their help and support. In addition, financial support from Sandia National Laboratories is greatly appreciated. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. We would also like to thank the people at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory for the ability to perform neutron reflectivity measurements. This facility is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, BES-Materials Science, under contract W-31-109-ENG-38 to the University of Chicago. We also wish to thank Rick Goyette for his assistance with the reflectivity experiments and Dr. Pappannan Thiyagarajan for his aid in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, 2527 Engineering Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Melissa A. Holmes & Michael E. Mackay

  2. Organic Materials Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 87123, USA

    Rachel K. Giunta

Authors
  1. Melissa A. Holmes
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  2. Michael E. Mackay
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  3. Rachel K. Giunta
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Correspondence to Michael E. Mackay.

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Holmes, M.A., Mackay, M.E. & Giunta, R.K. Nanoparticles for dewetting suppression of thin polymer films used in chemical sensors. J Nanopart Res 9, 753–763 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-006-9118-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-006-9118-1

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