AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Thursday Sessions
       Session PS2-ThM

Paper PS2-ThM7
Super-Hydrophobic Transparent Polymer Surfaces Fabricated by Plasma Etching and Deposition

Thursday, November 16, 2006, 10:00 am, Room 2011

Session: Plasmas and Polymers
Presenter: N. Vourdas, Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR Demokritos, Greece
Authors: N. Vourdas, Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR Demokritos, Greece
M.E. Vlachopoulou, Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR Demokritos, Greece
A. Tserepi, Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR Demokritos, Greece
E. Gogolides, Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR Demokritos, Greece
Correspondent: Click to Email
Wettability control is of great importance in many industrial and scientific areas; from manufacturing of water repellent surfaces to droplet frictionless motion in microfluidics, and biocompatibility tuning. Wetting or repellent behavior is governed by both surface chemistry and topography. In particular, super-hydrophobicity is attained by combining low surface energy coatings and high-aspect-ratio (HAR) geometrical characteristics. Liquids contact only the upper part of HAR surfaces (Cassie-Baxter regime). In this study we present a novel, simple, generic and fast technique to fabricate stable super-hydrophobic, yet transparent surfaces by means of high-density plasma etching and deposition.@footnote 1@ An Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) reactor is used to treat two different kind of polymers; an organic one (PMMA) and a hybrid one (PDMS). Different plasma chemistries pertinent to each polymer are implemented to etch the surfaces followed by a fluorocarbon deposition to control the surface roughness and the surface chemistry respectively. AFM is used to characterize morphology and water contact angle (CA) and CA hysteresis to characterize wetting properties. We demonstrate high aspect ratio pillars with height ranging from ca. 350nm to several microns depending on the processing time, and contact angles of 150@super o@ with hysteresis lower than 15@super o@. Surfaces with pillar height less than 400nm are also transparent. @FootnoteText@@footnote 1@Greek Patent application number 20050100473; PCT application number GR2006/000011.