Invited Paper TF1+EM-WeM9
Hybrid Materials by Vapor Phase Infiltration

Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 10:40 am, Room 110

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin film deposition technique which was developed in the 1970s to meet the needs for processing thin film electroluminescent displays (TFEL). Technically and chemically it is similar to chemical vapor deposition (CVD). However, in contrast to CVD, ALD incorporates as a specific feature the separation of the chemical reaction into two half-reactions. The ALD is not only able to perform thin film coatings of inorganic materials, but also allows coatings with organic-inorganic hybrid materials and, due to the separated exposure of the substrate to the precursors, infiltration of soft matter.

This talk will show top-down approaches to hybrid organic-inorganic and bio-inorganic materials obtained by infiltration with metals from the vapor phase. With tiny amounts of metals infiltrated, biological materials, such as spider silk or collagen, can positively change their mechanical properties after being treated with pulsed vapors of metal-organic precursors. The improvement of mechanical properties is related to changes in the molecular structure of the protein-based materials. However, not only biopolymers undergo changes after infiltration. With the example of some synthetic polymers, analogous routes to modify their mechanical properties will be shown.