An elegant and precise
method to fabricate asymmetrical structures
and/or gradient structures was developed based on a vapor-phase sublimation
and deposition process. The fabricated materials exhibited versatility
and had advantages such as well-controlled pore structures and functional
properties ranging from an asymmetrical distribution to a gradient
hierarchy; precisely addressed interface chemistries and properties
for the constructed materials; and flexibility to produce the materials
at multiple scales. By using a time-dependent customization parameter
to control the bulk size and/or the dispersion of molecules, fabrication
of the materials was demonstrated, producing particles with hierarchical
pore structures and with bulk sizes ranging from >500 μm
to
submicrons, as well as gradients with both continuously varied porosity
and chemical functionality that were demonstrated to be in a controlled
direction and varied across multiple scales (centimeter, millimeter,
and micrometer). By exploiting chemical vapor deposition to enable
multicomponent copolymerization during the fabrication process, multifunctional
poly-p-xylylenes formed building blocks for these
hierarchical materials and provided the defined surface chemistries.
The proposed functional hierarchical materials were constructed and
assembled in the vapor phase and in one step, and prospective materials
produced by this method are expected to have novel properties and
unlimited applications.