Atomic force microscopy thin polymer film preparation

Another example of a Pc-based 1-D polymer is that reported by Armstrong and co-workers [158], They prepared a Pc with eight styrene-type polymerizable sites at the end of the peripheral substituents. This molecule forms highly ordered, rod-like aggregates at the air-water interface that can be transferred onto solid supports. Irradiation of the thin films affords polymerization between the olefin moieties of adjacent molecules by photostimulated [2 + 2] cycloaddition. The rod-like Pc macromolecules were conveniently studied by matrix-assisted laser desorp-tion/ionization (MALDI-TOF) spectrometry and atomic force microscopy (ATM), the latter showing rods with lengths up to 290 nm. 

The thickness ho of the PDMS films on top of the PDMS brush, as measured by ellipsometry, was varied in the range of 30-150 nm. All films were obtained by spin-coating dilute heptane solutions directly (Mito the coated substrates. As indicated in Fig. 4, isothermal dewetting of the thin polymer films, i.e., the retraction of a contact line, was followed in real time (0 by optical microscopy. The morphology of the rim was also investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). More details on sample preparation and dewetting measurements can be found in [146, 147],... 

---