Abstract
A novel method is demonstrated for ordered deposition of thin lamellar objects from a liquid environment onto solid substrates by solid/fluid/solid-driven organisation. Surface functionalisation forms a template pattern that accumulates the lamellar objects by site-selective wetting of the target area without the need for a physical fluid containment. Contrary to conventional handling methods, no mechanical contact occurs, which facilitates the ordered deposition without wrinkles or ruptures. An additive and a subtractive process for the creation of such templates are presented. The subtractive process starts with the complete silanisation of the substrate in the vapour phase followed by site-selective oxygen plasma treatment of the siloxane film. The additive process uses microcontact printing to transfer the target pattern. Both processes are characterised by optical inspection of the wetting contours and it is found that site-selective plasma treatment shows a better pattern fidelity. The patterns obtained by site-selective plasma treatment are also subject to ToF-SIMS analysis and show good chemical contrast between hydrophilic and hydrophobic areas. The ordered deposition of lamellar objects by this new method is demonstrated for 60 nm thick ultramicrotome sections of epoxide resin on pre-patterned glass substrates.
Highlights
A novel method is demonstrated for ordered deposition of thin lamellar objects from a liquid environment onto solid substrates by solid/fluid/solid-driven organisation
The hydrophobicity of glass substrates silanised with 1,7-Dichlorooctamethyltetrasiloxane vapour is investigated by measuring the static contact angle after different silanisation times
The results indicate that a hydrophobic functionalisation (>90°) is clearly achieved after 60 min of exposure
Summary
A novel method is demonstrated for ordered deposition of thin lamellar objects from a liquid environment onto solid substrates by solid/fluid/solid-driven organisation. The floating-off of the thin films is usually unproblematic, picking up the floating film might be challenging, as e.g. under mechanical stress wrinkling or even rupture of the film may occur[3,4] Another typical challenge is the transfer of ultramicrotome sections on solid substrates for imaging purposes. The sensitivity of the fragile sections makes the application of mechanical methods for automated section handling difficult In both thin film technology and ultramicrotome sectioning, lamellar objects are floating in a liquid environment to facilitate deposition on solid substrates. This process environment a solid substrate whose surface properties can be tailored and which is submerged in a liquid reservoir, opens up interesting possibilities for ordered deposition of floating lamellar objects by solid/fluid/solid interface-driven organisation
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