Abstract
Well-ordered porous films have been widely applied in various areas, such as chemical sensors, microreactors, and tissue engineering. In this article, we propose a novel air-liquid interface self-assembly method to fabricate well-ordered porous polystyrene (PS)/styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) films by simply dipping the PS/SBS chloroform solutions onto the surface of a mixed water/ethanol liquid phase. The proper volume ratio of water/ethanol is necessary for the formation of films with highly uniform pore size. The effect of weight ratio of PS/SBS, the volume ratio of water/ethanol and the concentration of the solutions were experimentally investigated. The pore size decreases with the concentration of polymer solution, and the structure becomes more regular with the decrease of water/ethanol volume ratio. Ordered structure can be formed under PS/SBS in a certain weight ratio. The self-assembled films also have the function of self-cleaning. Besides the analysis of structural characteristic, the self-assembly mechanism was also discussed.
Highlights
Well-ordered porous films have potential applications in optoelectronic devices on a large scale [1], filtration membranes [2,3], tissue engineering [4,5], super-hydrophobic surface [6,7], catalysis [8,9] and so on
We develop an effective one-step strategy to synthesize well-ordered porous films by dissolving PS and SBS in chloroform, and dipping the solution in a water/ethanol liquid mixture
The properties of the liquid are essential to the features of the films, and ethanol plays a critical role in the formation of well-ordered porous films
Summary
Well-ordered porous films have potential applications in optoelectronic devices on a large scale [1], filtration membranes [2,3], tissue engineering [4,5], super-hydrophobic surface [6,7], catalysis [8,9] and so on. A variety of top-down methods, such as standard microelectronic fabrication process (e.g., plasma etching, photolithography) and soft lithography have been applied to fabricate well-ordered porous films [10]. Amphiphilic polymers (block copolymers, π-conjugated polymers, etc.), dendrimers (poly(benzyl ether), poly(amido amine), etc.) and metal nanoparticles have all been studied in the air-liquid interface self-assembly method [26]. The morphologies of films could be tuned by varying the weight ratio of PS/SBS in chloroform, as well as by varying the volume ratio of water/ethanol and the concentration of the PS/SBS chloroform solutions. This method could be applied to numerous devices to fabricate microstructure films. After treatment with a lubricant, the films can display excellent self-cleaning ability
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