Controlling Lengthscales in Water-Solvent Induced Self-Organized Dewetting of Thin Polystyrene Films by Modulating the Surface Properties of the Substrate

Abstract

We report here a facile method of modulating the lengthscales of self-organized dewetting of polystyrene thin films by varying the extent of silane grafting on the substrate. The self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) were grafted on glass substrates by exposing them to different doses of OTS vapors in a controlled, low pressure environment. Measurement of water contact angles on the modified glass surfaces showed that the contact angles could be continuously increased from 40° to 70° by increasing the time of exposure to the OTS vapors from a few minutes to several hours. Polystyrene (PS) thin films were spin coated on the modified glass substrates and water-solvent mixture induced dewetting of the PS thin films was carried out, where the dewetting kinetics depended on the spreadability of water on the surface. We observed a reduction in the length scales of the dewetting, i.e. the wavelength of instability (λ) and droplet size (d), by increasing the extent of OTS exposure. The λ for a 50 nm thick PS film decreased from 12 to 4 µm while the droplet diameter (d) also decreased, from 2.5 to 1.6 µm. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.