Dendritic amphiphiles as additives for honeycomb-like patterned surfaces by breath figures: role of the molecular characteristics on the pore morphology

A S De León; S Malhotra; M Molina; R Haag; M Calderón; J Rodríguez-Hernández; A Muñoz-Bonilla

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2014.11.009

Dendritic amphiphiles as additives for honeycomb-like patterned surfaces by breath figures: role of the molecular characteristics on the pore morphology

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2015 Feb 15:440:263-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.11.009. Epub 2014 Nov 11.

Authors

A S De León¹, S Malhotra², M Molina², R Haag², M Calderón³, J Rodríguez-Hernández¹, A Muñoz-Bonilla⁴

Affiliations

¹ Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Polímeros (ICTP), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), C/Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
² Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Takustr. 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
³ Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Takustr. 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: marcelo.calderon@fu-berlin.de.
⁴ Departamento de Química-Física Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Francisco Tomás y Valiente 7, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: alexandra.munnoz@uam.es.

PMID: 25460714
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.11.009

Abstract

The current study presents a library of honeycomb-like patterned surfaces developed from a variety of different water-soluble amphiphilic dendrons. When compared to commercial surfactants, the dendrons produce a wide variety of porous surfaces due to their well-defined branched structure. Different functionalities and generations of dendrons have been studied. A singular hierarchical distribution of the dendrons, forming small nanoparticles (micelles) only at the inner edges of the holes (coffee stain effect) is observed. Once the surfaces are fabricated, these dendrons can be easily recovered via simple aqueous washing. After this treatment, the surfaces exhibit a high hydrophobic character (up to 140°) due to the high porosity. This behavior can be described by the Cassie-Baxter model.

Keywords: Breath figures; Cassie–Baxter state; Coffee stain; Dendrons; Hierarchical structures; Honeycomb; Hydrophobic surfaces; Micelles; Self-assembly; Surfactants.