Journal
NANO LETTERS
Volume 18, Issue 12, Pages 7441-7447Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b02514
Keywords
Polymer nanocomposite; pattern decay; stability; lithography; enthalpy-entropy compensation effect; polymer thin films
Categories
Funding
- DOE (BES) award [DE-SC0018854]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0018854] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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Polymer films provide a versatile platform in which complex functional relief patterns can be thermally imprinted with a resolution down to few nanometers. However, a practical limitation of this method is the tendency for the imprinted patterns to relax (slump), leading to loss of pattern fidelity over time. While increasing temperature above glass transition temperature (T-g) accelerates the slumping kinetics of neat films, we find that the addition of polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNP) can greatly enhance the thermal stability of these patterns. Specifically, increasing the concentration of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) grafted titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles in the composite films slows down film relaxation dynamics, leading to enhanced pattern stability for the temperature range that we investigated. Interestingly, slumping relaxation time is found to obey an entropy-enthalpy compensation (EEC) relationship with varying PGNP concentration, similar to recently observed relaxation of strain-induced wrinkling in glassy polymer films having variable film thickness. The compensation temperature, T-comp was found to be in the vicintity of the bulk T-g of PMMA. Our results suggest a common origin of EEC relaxation in patterned polymer thin films and nanocomposites.
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