Thin films of polystyrene on silicon substrate were investigated for thickness-dependent interface properties. To better understand the desirable electrical, mechanical, and optical properties of a polymer thin film, the interfacial structures must be first understood. Using x-ray reflectivity, data from polystyrene-air and polystyrene-silicon interfaces were collected and correlated with a the...

The morphology and the phase diagram of ABC triblock copolymer thin film directed by polymer brushes are investigated by the self-consistent field theory in three dimensions. The polymer brushes coated on the substrate can be used as a good soft template to tailor the morphology of the block copolymer thin films compared with those on the hard substrates. The polymer brush is identical with the...

The surface of a thin liquid film with a nonconstant curvature is unstable, as the Laplace pressure drives a flow mediated by viscosity. We present the results of experiments on one of the simplest variable curvature surfaces: a thin polymer film with a step. Height profiles are measured as a function of time for a variety of molecular weights. The evolution of the profiles is shown to be self-...

Incorporation of a block copolymer into a thin polymer film is observed to alter both the rate and mechanism by which the film dewets from an immiscible polymer substrate. Films with little or no copolymer dewet by classical nucleation and growth of circular holes, and the dewetting rate decreases with increasing copolymer concentration. Increasing the copolymer content at constant film thickne...

The spin coating of thin (> 200 nm thick) and ultrathin (< 200 nm thick) polymer films is examined in several solvents of varying volatility over a broad range of polymer solution concentrations and spin speeds. Experimentally measured film thicknesses are compared with a simple model proposed by Bornside, Macosko, and Scriven, which predicts film thickness based on the initial properties of th...

Thin polymeric films are increasingly being utilized in diverse technological applications, and it is crucial to have a reliable method to characterize the stability of these films against dewetting. The parameter space that influences the dewetting of thin polymer films is wide (molecular mass, temperature, film thickness, substrate interaction) and a combinatorial method of investigation is s...

ii Nanocomposite of ZrO2/Polymer Thin-film Coatings by The Ionically Self-Assembled Monolayer Technique

Tailoring the polymer-metal interface is crucial for advanced material design. Vacuum deposition methods for metal layer coating are widely used in industry and research. They allow for installing a variety of nanostructures, often making use of the selective interaction of the metal atoms with the underlying polymer thin film. The polymer thin film may eventually be nanostructured, too, in ord...

We report a highly transparent, low resistance Ag metal network templated by a cracked polymer thin film and its incorporation in an organic solar cell. The performance of this scalable metallic network is comparable to that of conventional ITO electrodes. This is a general approach to replace ITO in diverse thin film devices.

We present a general criterion for determining the dynamic instability of a thin polymer film that is strongly confined to a substrate. When such a polymer film is heated above its glass transition temperature, it dewets from the substrate by a spinodal dewetting scenario, in which the onset of the instability is governed by dispersion force and residual thermal stress. It turns out that the th...