Influence of Solvent on Octadecyltrichlorosilane Nanostructures Fabricated Using Particle Lithography

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-4-2015

Abstract

Numerous strategies have been devised to register organosilane monolayers for applications ranging from lubricants to semiconductor surface resists. Of these patterning techniques, particle lithography offers a straightforward and high-throughput method to create periodic arrays of organosilane nanopatterns. Herein, we describe the influence of solvent on the solution-phase formation of periodic arrays of nanopores within octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) monolayers using particle lithography. Our systematic study of various compositions of two miscible solvents, anhydrous toluene and bicyclohexyl, demonstrates control over nanopore size and OTS surface coverage. Smaller nanopores are generated from solutions with higher anhydrous toluene composition, and larger nanopores are generated from solutions with higher bicyclohexyl composition. A study of the effect of deposition time on nanopore formation found that at shorter deposition times (<5 >min), the nanopore size is limited by diffusion into the water meniscus around the base of the nanoparticle, and at longer deposition times (>15 min), the size of the nanopore is limited by the mesosphere-substrate contact geometry as seen with anhydrous toluene solutions. This ability to regulate nanopore size and surface coverage, while preserving the interpattern periodicity, demonstrates an additional level of hierarchical control over organosilane nanostructure formation and enables a broader range of nanostructures that can be fabricated. (Figure Presented).

Publication Title

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Volume

119

Issue

22

First Page

12455

Last Page

12463

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b02576

ISSN

19327447

E-ISSN

19327455

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