The role of a nanoparticle monolayer on the flow of polymer melts in nanochannels

Abstract

Understanding and controlling the flow properties of polymer melts at the nanoscale is of great relevance in fundamental research and in a variety of applications. In the present study we have analysed experimentally the flow behaviour of polymers in nanochannels of varying roughness, produced by gold nanoparticle absorption. The experimental results show that nanochannel roughness has a significant influence on surface energy and on the flow behaviour of polymer melts. These results provide fundamental information on the preparation of one-dimensional polymer nanochannels applicable in both micro- and nano-injection technology.

Replication of Mesoscale Pore One-dimensional Nanostructures: Surface-induced Phase Separation of Polystyrene/Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PS/PVA) Blends

“…The PS 1 showed the higher flowability within AAO 1 templates as compared with PS 2 . The flowability of the polymers was enhanced by increased imprinting temperature due to the reduction of polymer viscosities, and decreased surface tensions between polymer melts and AAO templates [11,12,13,14,15]. However, the length of VANs did not increase at temperatures above 180 °C because the polymer was easily ejected out from the AAO nanocavities under the high imprinting pressure and relatively low viscosity.…”

“…The droplet domain size relates to time as in Equation (3) d≈(kBTη)true13ttrue13 where kB is the Boltzmann constant, T is the temperature, and η is the viscosity. In this study, the viscosity of molten polymers used was reduced with increasing temperature referred to the viscosity Arrhenius model [11].…”

“…The control of surface-induced phase separation behaviors in the AAO pores is crucial for these techniques. A great deal of research has attempted to improve these methods to be faster, cheaper, more precise, less toxic, and more scalable, which are in conflict with the fundamentals of the solvent-wetting and thermal melt-wetting methods [11,12,13,14]. With the successful development of polymer engineering technologies, the direct patterning method of thermal nanoimprint is an alternative method to replicate the VAPNs because of its high replication capability with rapid speed, zero−solvent use, high precision and reproducibility.…”

Polymer melt flow through nanochannels: from theory and fabrication to application

“…The thermal effect becomes coupled with the nanotube size and transport rate effects, where as in smaller tubes at higher ow rates, the transport resistance is more temperature sensitive, whose energy density can be controlled through temperature. [64][65][66] When the temperature of polymer melts is much higher than melting temperature, polymer melts will rapidly wet and ow in nanochannels. 47 On high energy surfaces, the effect of wetting temperature T w on nanoow of polymer melts in nanochannels can be attributed to the wetting transition of melts.…”

“…Since the transport behaviour changes when ions are added to the liquid phase. 64,66 Decreasing the pore diameter may cause the transition from wetting state to non wetting state. 9,61,62 Ordered porous alumina is depicted by high regular alignment of parallel pores having sharp diameter distribution and uniform pore depth, the tiny opening demonstrate high regularity and specic macroscopic orientation over large areas (on the order of square centimeters) which becomes the source to give us nanorods and nanotubes with different diameter sizes of nanochannels.…”