Sequential Evaporation–Induced Formation of Polymeric Surface Microdents via Ouzo Effect. Issue 11 (30th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Yuliang; Zeng, Binglin; Li, Xiaolai; Zhang, Xuehua
• Is Part Of: Advanced materials interfaces. Volume 6:Issue 11(2019)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-04-30
• Subjects: microdents -- Ouzo effect -- polystyrene -- templates -- water droplets; Materials science -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/admi.201900002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-7350

Abstract

Abstract: Microdents fabricated on solid substrates have numerous applications, such as containers for cell growth, reactors for chemical reactions, and nucleation sites for growing photonic crystals. In this study, a new method is developed to fabricate microdents on polystyrene (PS) film deposited on a solid surface. The process relied on Ouzo effect in a ternary solution consisting of three solvents exhibiting different volatilities. In the ternary solution, precursor water droplets are first nucleated when a good solvent of water evaporated. The nucleated water droplets then act as templates for microdent formation during PS film deposition. After water droplets eventually evaporates, microdents are generated on the PS film. The detailed process of microdent formation is experimentally revealed. By controlling the nucleation of water droplets and PS concentration, the lateral size and the depth of microdents are systematically tuned. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the microdent decorated films obtained with the proposed method can be used to fabricate lubricating surfaces, which exhibit a low contact angle hysteresis of 2°. Abstract : Formation of polymeric surface microdents induced by sequential evaporation of solvents via "Ouzo Effect" The size of indents can be adjusted by water concentration, and the depth of indents can be tuned through polystyrene concentration controlling. With the polymeric surface microdents, lubricating surface is achieved to increase the mobility of water droplets.