Effect of ferrocene on the fabrication of honeycomb-patterned porous polystyrene films and silver functionalization of the film

Abstract

Honeycomb-patterned (HCP) porous polystyrene (PS) film was fabricated by the breath figure method with inclusion of ferrocene in the PS solution for silver (Ag)-functionalization. Ag-functionalized HCP porous PS film was obtained by immersing the fabricated film in aqueous silver nitrate solution through interfacial reduction by ferrocene. The addition of ferrocene in the polymer solution also affected the morphology of the HCP porous film during the fabrication process. Depending on the used ferrocene concentration, morphology of the obtained Ag morphology on the film surface was different. By increasing the ferrocene concentration the reduced silver particles changed to silver nanowire without much aggregation and also increased the conductivity of the films. This method of silver-functionalization on the polymer film unleashes the futuristic applications in interdisciplinary fields such as substrates for Raman scattering and antibacterial studies.