Abstract
The direct pyrolytic carbonisation of polymer patterns has attracted interest for its use in obtaining carbon materials. In the case of carbonisation of nanopatterned polymers, the polymer flow and subsequent pattern change may occur in order to relieve their high surface energies. Here, we demonstrated that liquid immersion thermal crosslinking of polymer nanopatterns effectively enhanced the thermal resistance and maintained the structure integrity during the heat treatment. We employed the liquid immersion thermal crosslinking for 3D porous SU8 photoresist nanopatterns and successfully converted them to carbon nanopatterns while maintaining their porous features. The thermal crosslinking reaction and carbonisation of SU8 nanopatterns were characterised. The micro-crystallinity of the SU8-derived carbon nanopatterns was also characterised. The liquid immersion heat treatment can be extended to the carbonisation of various polymer or photoresist nanopatterns and also provide a facile way to control the surface energy of polymer nanopatterns for various purposes, for example, to block copolymer or surfactant self-assemblies.
Highlights
We found that the thermal crosslinking by immersing in liquid solvent was effective at relieving the high surface energy of the nanopatterns and thereby maintain the pattern morphology during the heat treatment
We have demonstrated a novel and facile liquid immersion heat treatment strategy to crosslink polymer nanopatterns without inducing any pattern morphology change
We observed that the liquid immersion thermal crosslinked 3D patterns were converted into carbon nanopatterns with high structural integrity; the skeleton of the nanopattern became thin because the pyrolytic decomposition during the carbonisation
Summary
We found that the thermal crosslinking by immersing in liquid solvent was effective at relieving the high surface energy of the nanopatterns and thereby maintain the pattern morphology during the heat treatment. We observed that the crosslinked nanopatterns maintained their pattern or pore structure during direct pyrolytic carbonisation, along with large mass loss. Results and Discussion Fabrication of 3D porous nanopatterns and liquid immersion thermal crosslinking.
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