Ultrasmooth Polydopamine Modified Surfaces for Block Copolymer Nanopatterning on Flexible Substrates.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2016;
8:7456-7463. [PMID:
26942554 DOI:
10.1021/acsami.6b00626]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Nature has engineered universal, catechol-containing adhesives which can be synthetically mimicked in the form of polydopamine (PDA). In this study, PDA was exploited to enable the formation of block copolymer (BCP) nanopatterns on a variety of soft material surfaces. While conventional PDA coating times (1 h) produce a layer too rough for most applications of BCP nanopatterning, we found that these substrates could be polished by bath sonication in a weakly basic solution to form a conformal, smooth (root-mean-square roughness ∼0.4 nm), and thin (3 nm) layer free of large prominent granules. This chemically functionalized, biomimetic layer served as a reactive platform for subsequently grafting a surface neutral layer of poly(styrene-random-methyl methacrylate-random-glycidyl methacrylate) to perpendicularly orient lamellae-forming poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) BCP. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy observations confirmed that a BCP nanopattern on a poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrate was not affected by bending with a radius of ∼0.5 cm. This procedure enables nondestructive, plasma-free surface modification of chemically inert, low-surface energy soft materials, thus overcoming many current chemical and physical limitations that may impede high-throughput, roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing.
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