Three-Dimensional Organization of Surface-Bound Silicone Nanofilaments Revealed by Focused Ion Beam Nanotomography

One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures have been identified as key technology for future devices and integrated into surface-bound materials. The roughness of surface-bound 1D silicone nanofilaments (SNFs) has been used extensively to create surfaces with extreme wetting properties and as carrier material. Electron microscopy has shown that this material is made of individual filaments with diameters spanning tens of nanometers and a length of several micrometers which arrange into a highly entangled quasi-porous network. However, a comprehensive analysis of the three-dimensional (3D) superstructure has remained elusive so far. In this study, focused ion beam nanotomography (FIB-nt) is used to quantify the otherwise hardly accessible structural parameters roughness (12.68) and volume fraction (2.80). The volume fraction is anisotropic, and two major species of SNFs are quantified to contribute equally to the overall surface area. Spatial statistics reveals a self-avoiding growth pattern of SNFs over the substrate, and a 3D model of the data is rendered. The presented analysis therefore significantly advances the understanding of SNF surface coatings with regard to their structure at the nano- and microscale. Finally, the described procedure may serve as a useful tool to analyze other surface-bound 1D nanostructures of similar complex arrangement.