Methods and systems for deposition of blended polymer films

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10828665-B2
Application number	US-201515507290-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2015
Priority date	Sep 4, 2014
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

Methods and systems for deposition of blended polymer films are disclosed. According to an aspect a method of producing a film on a substrate includes combining a guest material, a host matrix, and a solvent having one or more hydroxyl (O—H) bonds to form a target emulsion. The method also includes exposing the target emulsion to an infrared source that is tuned to an absorption peak in the host matrix that is reduced in or absent from the guest material thereby desorbing the host matrix from the target emulsion and lifting the guest material from the surface of the target emulsion. The target emulsion and the substrate are oriented with respect to each other such that the lifted guest material is deposited as a film upon the substrate.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of producing a film on a substrate, the method comprising:
combining a guest material, a host matrix, and a solvent having one or more hydroxyl (O—H) bonds to form a target emulsion; and
exposing the target emulsion to an infrared source that is tuned to an absorption peak in the host matrix that is reduced in or absent from the guest material thereby desorbing the host matrix from the target emulsion and lifting the guest material from the surface of the target emulsion, the target emulsion and the substrate being oriented with respect to each other such that the lifted guest material is deposited as a film upon the substrate, and
wherein the target emulsion is partitioned into concentric rings, wherein each ring comprises a single guest material.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein combining the guest material, host matrix, and solvent comprises dissolving the guest material in the host matrix.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the host matrix is more volatile than the guest material.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein exposing the host matrix in the target emulsion to the infrared source excites specific molecular vibrational bond stretches that reduce degradation of the guest material.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the infrared source comprises a wavelength that is resonant with hydroxyl (O—H) bonds.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the wavelength comprises a range of about 2.7 μm to about 3.4 μm.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the wavelength comprises a range of about 2.82 μm to about 3.1 μm.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the infrared source comprises a laser.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the laser comprises an Er:YAG laser.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the guest material comprises one of a polymer, a small molecule, a nanoparticle, a biologic, and combinations thereof.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the polymer comprises one of a linear conjugated polymer, a linear nonconjugated polymer, a polyelectrolyte, a stimuli-responsive polymer, an ionomer, and combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the linear conjugated polymer comprises one of polythiophene (PT), poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV), polypyrrole (PPY), polyaniline (PANI), polyacetylene, polyparaphenylene (PPP), copolymers thereof and combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the linear nonconjugated polymer comprises one of polyacrylates, polystyrenes, copolymers thereof and combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the polyelectrolyte comprises one of poly(phenylene ethynylene)(PPE), copolymers thereof, and combinations thereof.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the stimuli-responsive polymer comprises one of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm), copolymers thereof, and combinations thereof.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the ionomer comprises one of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and polystyrene sulfonate, a mixture (PEDOT:PSS) thereof, copolymers thereof, and combinations thereof.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the small molecule comprises one of a fullerene, a phthalocyanine, a chromophore, a quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) and combinations thereof.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the chromophore comprises one of ruthenium dyes, ethyl violet dyes, and disperse red 1 dyes.

19. The method of claim 10 , wherein the nanoparticle comprises one of quantum dots, a nanowire, a nanotube, and combinations thereof.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the quantum dots comprise one of solid or core/shell configurations of inorganic semiconductor materials, metallic nanoparticles, metal oxide nanoparticles, and combinations thereof.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the solid or core/shell configurations of inorganic semiconductor materials comprise one of II-VI, III-V, IV-VI binary compounds, group IV materials, and combinations thereof.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the metallic nanoparticles comprise one of gold, silver, and combinations thereof.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein the metal oxide nanoparticles comprise one of zinc oxides, titanium oxides, and combinations thereof.

24. The method of claim 10 , wherein the biologic comprises one of proteins, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), complementary DNA (cDNA), oligopeptides, polypeptides, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, lipids, and proteins.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target emulsion is frozen.

26. The method of claim 1 , wherein the host matrix comprises one of aromatic compounds, alcohols, ketones, and halocarbons.

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein the aromatic compounds comprise one of toluene, xylene, mesitylene, chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene, trichlorobenzene, tetrahydrofuran, and combinations thereof.

28. The method of claim 26 , wherein the alcohols comprise one of methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, benzyl alcohol, and phenol.

29. The method of claim 26 , wherein the ketones comprise one of acetone and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK).

30. The method of claim 26 , wherein the halocarbons comprise one of trichloroethylene and chloroform.

31. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a silicon-based readout circuit.

32. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a piezoelectric material.

33. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises one of a chemical sensing device and a biochemical sensing device.

34. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises an acoustic wave device.

35. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a non-planar surface.

36. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the steps of combining and exposing with a plurality of guest materials to thereby create a multi-layer film on the substrate.

37. The method of claim 1 , further comprising rotating the target emulsion such that the infrared source rasters along one or between two or more of the concentric rings.

38. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying laser pulses to different materials of the target emulsion, the laser pulses being spatially alternated between the different materials for determining the structure of a resulting mixed composition film.

39. The method of claim 38 , wherein applying laser pulses comprises timing the laser pulses for determining the structure of the resulting mixed composition film.

40. The method of claim 38 , wherein applying laser pulses comprises rapidly alternating applied pulses among two or more different materials to produce a blended composite film in which the spatial extent of each material domain is about 1 micrometer or less in size within the film.

41. The method of claim 38 , wherein applying laser pulses comprises alternating the laser pulses between two or more target materials at fixed intervals to produce a composite film comprising alternating layers of the target materials.

42. The method of claim 38 , wherein applying laser pulses comprises alternating the laser pulses between two or more materials to produce one homogeneous material layer atop another homogeneous layer in a single d

Assignees

• Univ Duke

Inventors

• Stiff-Roberts Adrienne D
• Mccormick Ryan D

Classifications

• B01F23/411

  using electrical or magnetic fields, heat or vibrations · CPC title

• C23C14/28

  by wave energy or particle radiation (C23C14/32 - C23C14/48 take precedence) · CPC title

• C23C14/12

  Organic material · CPC title

• B05D3/0218

  Pretreatment, e.g. heating the substrate · CPC title

• C08J5/18

  Manufacture of films or sheets · CPC title