Formation of Nanostructure during Replication of a Hierarchical Plant Surface.

Dora Kroisová,Petr Kůsa,Štěpánka Dvořáčková

doi:10.3390/nano11112811

Dora Kroisová, Petr Kůsa + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11112811

Copy DOI

Abstract

Plant and animal surfaces have become a model for preparing special synthetic surfaces with low wettability, reflectivity, or antibacterial properties. Processes that lead to the creation of replicas of natural character use two-step imprinting methods. This article describes a technique of synthetic polymer surface preparation by the process of two-stage imprinting. The laboratory-prepared structure copies the original natural pattern at the micrometer and sub-micrometer levels, supplemented by a new substructure. The new substructure identified by the scanning electron microscope is created at the nanometer level during the technological process. The nanostructure is formed only under the conditions that a hierarchical structure forms the surface of the natural replicated pattern, the replication mold is from a soft elastomeric material, and the material for producing the synthetic surface is a polymer capable of crystallizing. A new nanometer substructure formation occurs when the polymer cools to standard laboratory temperature and atmospheric pressure.

Highlights

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic; Abstract: Plant and animal surfaces have become a model for preparing special synthetic surfaces with low wettability, reflectivity, or antibacterial properties
The nanostructure documented by an electron microscope was formed by cooling a molten crystallizing polymer in a soft elastomeric form with a hierarchical surface at atmospheric pressure and room temperature
A simple procedure created a new substructure during the two-stage replication of

Summary

Introduction

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic; Abstract: Plant and animal surfaces have become a model for preparing special synthetic surfaces with low wettability, reflectivity, or antibacterial properties. The laboratoryprepared structure copies the original natural pattern at the micrometer and sub-micrometer levels, supplemented by a new substructure. The nanostructure is formed only under the conditions that a hierarchical structure forms the surface of the natural replicated pattern, the replication mold is from a soft elastomeric material, and the material for producing the synthetic surface is a polymer capable of crystallizing. Plant and animal objects have become subjects of interest of research institutes in recent decades They have become a model for a new perspective on such processes as the impact and use of sunlight, self-cleaning ability, antibacterial surface behavior, and more. The overall features of these surfaces are the presence of structures at the micrometer, sub-micrometer, and nanometer levels, and the existence of a sizeable specific character on which all-natural processes take place.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion