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Porous polymer film formation by water droplet templating using polystyrene

  • Regular Article - Soft Matter
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Abstract

Studies show that the formation of breath figures over polystyrene is not clearly understood—sometimes the patterns are regular and sometimes they are barely formed. In an attempt to understand this process a little more, breath figures over polystyrene of three molecular weights and on the smooth and grooved DVD surfaces are prepared and studied. The microporous films are prepared by the evaporation of the chloroform solution of the polymers in a humid environment. The thus formed breath figure patterns are studied under a confocal laser scanning microscope and the images are analyzed. Breath figures were formed for (a) three molecular weights of the polymer (b) two casting techniques, and (c) on smooth and grooved surfaces (of a commercial DVD). The wetting of the breath figures formed by water is also reported here. The pore diameters were found to increase with increase in molecular weight and also with concentration of the polymer used. Only drop-casting method yield breath figures. Voronoi entropy, calculated from the images, indicates ordered pores on the grooved surface compared to smooth surfaces. Contact angle studies indicate a hydrophobic nature of the polymer, with the hydrophobicity increasing by the patterning.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Swathi P V acknowledges DST, Govt. of India for the Inspire Fellowship (IF190317). The authors acknowledge S G Ramkumar for giving the idea of spin-coating. The authors acknowledge Chandra Mouli P V S S R for the discussions on image analysis. The authors acknowledge Abdulkareem U for running the MD simulation of PS. The authors thank the Naval Research Board of India for the contact angle goniometer.

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  1. Department of Physics, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, 610005, India

    P. V. Swathi & V. Madhurima

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  1. P. V. Swathi
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VM conceived the original idea. SPV performed the experiments. Both the authors were involved equally in the analysis of the results and writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to V. Madhurima.

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Swathi, P.V., Madhurima, V. Porous polymer film formation by water droplet templating using polystyrene. Eur. Phys. J. E 46, 25 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-023-00282-x

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