Journal
NANOMATERIALS
Volume 11, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nano11030589
Keywords
thin films; polymer-metal interfaces; deposition; metal clusters; in situ resistivity; surface free energy
Categories
Funding
- Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (bmwd)
- Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvit)
- Styrian Business Promotion Agency SFG
- Standortagentur Tirol
- Government of Lower Austria
- ZIT-Technology Agency of the City of Vienna through the COMET-Funding Program
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The study examines the influence of the interplay between metal and polymer surface free energy and reactivity on the evolution of electric conductivity and morphologies. Results show transitions characteristic for Volmer-Weber growth, with lower percolation thickness observed for more reactive metals. Experiments using scattering data provide insights into cluster and film morphology evolution.
Nanostructured metal assemblies on thin and ultrathin polymeric films enable state of the art technologies and have further potential in diverse fields. Rational design of the structure-function relationship is of critical importance but aggravated by the scarcity of systematic studies. Here, we studied the influence of the interplay between metal and polymer surface free energy and reactivity on the evolution of electric conductivity and the resulting morphologies. In situ resistance measurements during sputter deposition of Ag, Au, Cu and Ni films on ultrathin reticulated polymer films collectively reveal metal-insulator transitions characteristic for Volmer-Weber growth. The different onsets of percolation correlate with interfacial energy and energy of adhesion weakly but as expected from ordinary wetting theory. A more pronounced trend of lower percolation thickness for more reactive metals falls in line with reported correlations. Ex situ grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering experiments were performed at various thicknesses to gain an insight into cluster and film morphology evolution. A novel approach to interpret the scattering data is used where simulated pair distance distributions of arbitrary shapes and arrangements can be fitted to experiments. Detailed approximations of cluster structures could be inferred and are discussed in view of the established parameters describing film growth behavior.
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