Surface modification of polymers using a multi-step plasma treatment

We report a simple method for fabrication of one-dimensional, two-dimensional and nested hierarchical wrinkling patterns on polymeric surfaces using plasma treatment. The morphology of wrinkle patterns, specifically the wavelength and amplitude of each wrinkle generation, is controlled by the treatment time and stretching release after each treatment step. By systematically varying these two key experimental factors, wrinkle patterns with wavelength in the range of 50 nm to 10 mu m and amplitude in the range of 20-400 nm were created. (C) 2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.