Enhancing the stability of polymer nanostructures via ultrathin oxide coatings for nano-optical device applications

Yasi Wang; Peng Liu; Huimin Shi; Yutong Dai; Jian Zhang; Jianmin Zhang; Yueqiang Hu; Huigao Duan; Yiqin Chen

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/abf300

Enhancing the stability of polymer nanostructures via ultrathin oxide coatings for nano-optical device applications

Nanotechnology. 2021 Apr 27;32(29). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/abf300.

Authors

Yasi Wang^{1

2}, Peng Liu^{1

3}, Huimin Shi⁴, Yutong Dai¹, Jian Zhang¹, Jianmin Zhang⁵, Yueqiang Hu¹, Huigao Duan¹, Yiqin Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ National Technology Research Center for High-Efficiency Grinding, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082 People's Republic of China.
² Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory, Xiamen, 361102 People's Republic of China.
³ School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Center for Research on Leading Technology of Special Equipment, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, 410082 People's Republic of China.
⁵ Northwest Nuclear Technology Institute, State Key Laboratory of Laser Interaction with Matter, Xi'an, 710024 People's Republic of China.

PMID: 33780911
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/abf300

Abstract

Polymer nanostructures have drawn tremendous attention due to their wide applications in nanotechnology. However, the morphology of the polymer nanostructures is fragile under harsh conditions such as high-power irradiation and organic-solution environments during the fabrication or the measurement processes, significantly limiting their potential applications. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a simple approach to improve the stability of polymer nanostructures by coating a conformal ultrathin oxide film via atomic-layer deposition. Due to the refractory and dense coating of the oxide layer, the stability of polymer structures is enhanced by the prohibition of deformation occurrences from thermally induced reflow and organic solution. As a proof of concept, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanostructures coated with a sub-10-nm TiO₂layer are demonstrated, and the structures exhibit high temperature stability at 180 °C and good resistance to soluble damage from organic solutions. Subsequently, the mechanism of the improved thermal stability is analyzed via mechanical simulations. Such an effective approach is proposed to significantly broaden the application of polymer nanostructures as functional elements for optical structures/devices that require excellent thermal and chemical stability.

Keywords: PMMA; polymer nanostructures; stability; ultrathin TiO2coating.