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Hydrophobic recovery of cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane films and its consequence in soft nano patterning

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Abstract

Cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films and surfaces obtained by thermal cross-linking of commercially available Sylgard 184 are widely utilized in many areas of science, due to superior thermal stability, low dielectric constant, transparency and biocompatibility. Cross-linked PDMS surfaces are weakly hydrophobic and several experiments, particularly the ones that utilize capillary-driven microscale flow require the modulation of the surface wettability. A well-known strategy to achieve the same is by exposing the Sylgard 184 surface to UV/ozone (UVO) treatment at room temperature. Depending on the duration of exposure, the wettability drops from hydrophobic to a near-complete wetting (water contact angle ~10°), due to the formation of a surface oxide layer. However, under normal atmospheric conditions, these surfaces recover their hydrophobicity over a period of time due to diffusive migration of the uncrosslinked oligomers to the surface, and formation of a hydrophobic dimethyl silicone layer. We explore the hydrophobic recovery process as a function of cross-linker concentration and UVO exposure time and show how a partially or fully recovered PDMS stamp may influence subsequent nanopatterning, including the possible creation of features with different morphology using a single stamp.

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Acknowledgements

NB acknowledges DST INSPIRE Faculty grant (DST/INSPIRE/04/2016/002396). RM acknowledges IMPRINT project (No. 7183) funded by DST and MHRD, Government of India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instability and Soft Patterning Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, India

    Nandini Bhandaru, Neha Agrawal, Meneka Banik & Rabibrata Mukherjee

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, 500078, India

    Nandini Bhandaru

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India

    Ashutosh Sharma

Authors
  1. Nandini Bhandaru
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  2. Neha Agrawal
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  3. Meneka Banik
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  4. Rabibrata Mukherjee
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  5. Ashutosh Sharma
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Correspondence to Rabibrata Mukherjee.

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Bhandaru, N., Agrawal, N., Banik, M. et al. Hydrophobic recovery of cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane films and its consequence in soft nano patterning. Bull Mater Sci 43, 186 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-02162-y

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