Paper TF-ThP24
Vapor Phase Polymerization onto Liquid Substrates

Thursday, October 31, 2013, 6:00 pm, Room Hall B

We will present our work demonstrating polymer deposition onto ionic liquid (IL) substrates. ILs have recently attracted significant interest as an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional volatile organic solvents because ILs are non-volatile, non-flammable, and can be easily recycled. The low volatility of ILs allows for their use in vacuum processing. The immobilization and encapsulation of ILs is important to implementing ILs in commercial processes to bypass issues caused by their high viscosity. We will demonstrate the encapsulation of IL droplets in polymer shells and the integration of ILs into layered polymer films. Our encapsulation method uses a liquid marble technique to deposit a continuous polymer shell on the entire area of IL droplets. Polymer shells composed of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate crosslinked with ethylene glycol diacrylate (P(PFDA-co-EGDA)) were found to be stronger than the respective homopolymers. We also studied the immobilization of IL in layered polymer films made by sequential and simultaneous depositions of soluble and insoluble monomers. We found that the polymerization of soluble monomers within the bulk IL leads to the integration of the IL into the polymer films and that the order in which the monomers are introduced into our polymerization process significantly affects the structure of the layered films.