| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biological, Organic, and Soft Materials Focus Topic | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session BO+PS+AS+BI+SS-TuA |
| Session: | Plasma-deposited Polymer and Organic Surfaces in Biological Applications |
| Presenter: | G. Franz, University of Applied Sciences, Germany |
| Authors: | G. Franz, University of Applied Sciences, Germany F. Rauter, University of Applied Sciences, Germany M. Häge, University of Applied Sciences, Germany |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
In the course of our research how deposition conditions teleologically influence the morphology and various physical properties of the surface of various derivates of parylene, we followed the Yasuda approach to correlate the deposition rate of polymeric films with external parameters (flow rate and power) to define three different regimes of growth.1,2 Since external parameters, especially the pressure, influence the polymerization in an opposite manner (rising the pressure causes an increase in the collision rate, but a decrease in electron temperature) we studied the deposition of parylene vapors with and without pulsed microwave plasmas to correlate outcome parameters such as surface energy, roughness, and deposition rate with respect to plasma density and electron temperature (Langmuir and OES) by varying the molar fraction of the monomeric species, diluted by the noble gas argon, the total pressure and the power. For this end, we determined the vapor pressure of the dimer and the chemical equilibrium between the monomer and the dimer by varying the evaporation temperature and the cracking temperature, resp., and cross-checked this equilibrium by mass spectrometry. This method has been extended to explain the onset of volume polymerization which becomes manifest by slight tarnishing of the polymer. Following Yasuda, this happens when a certain ratio of number density of the monomeric species to plasma density is exceeded. After having established stable process windows, two further tracks have been followed, namely copolymerization with CF4 (volume polymerization) and hydrophilic functionalization. Following Gogolides, the surface roughness has been correlated to contact angle measurements.3 The super-hydrophobic character is mainly due to surface roughening (nanotexturing) in the case of normal CVD. However, plasma treatment leads to super-hydrophobic character also for smooth surfaces. Subsequent treatment with O2 generates long-term stable hydrophilic surfaces. To calibrate the effect of momentum transfer and to separate the chemical effect of etching, this has been compared with Ar etching.
1 H.K. Yasuda, and Q.S. Yu; J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 19, 773 (2001)
2 Q. Yu, C.E. Moffitt, D.M. Wieliczka, and H. Yasuda; J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 19, 2163 (2001)
3 A.D. Tserepi, M.-E. Vlachopoulou, and E. Gogolides; Nanotechnology 17, 3977 (2006).