Dewetted structure substrates

The values of Go and y are known and for the elastomer of Young s modulus of 2.1 MPa, [/o = 8 X 10 mm-s [12]. We can then evaluate 8 at ca. 20 mn. This value is perhaps a little high but of the same order of magnitude as earlier estimated [6]. Thus, despite some necessary approximations and simplifying hypotheses, we arrive at a semiquantitative explanation of the relationship between dewetting and therefore, presumably, wetting speed and the molecular structure of the elastomeric substrate. 

Fig. 30. Different types of the momentary morphologies which are typically observed during wetting (a-c) and dewetting (d-f) events on a solid flat substrate, a droplet, b spherical cap with a precursor film.c thin film (eventually with a multilayer structure), d thin liquid film, e ruptured film with rims at the dewetting front,f droplets...

Modern coating technologies require increasingly thinner polymer films. This requirement is opposed by the surface pressure and the chain elasticity. Below a certain equilibrium thickness, the film is either metastable or even unstable and tends to break into droplets regardless of the chemical structure of the substrate [321, 322]. Anomalous wetting behaviour was observed for amphiphilic polymer films whose stability is controlled by the orientation of the surface active moieties [323,324]. All these phenomena belong to the dewetting problem. 

Fig. 4a—d. Lamellar structures in thin films that are not considered further in detail in the present article a Thin film confined between inequivalent walls, where the lower one favors the B-rich domains and the upper one the A-rich domains. Then an arrangement where the interfaces run parallel to the walls requires that thickness D and wavelength X are related as D=(n+1/2)A, n=0,l, 2... b Thin film on a substrate that favors B-rich domains undergo at the order-disorder transition (ODT) of the block copolymer melt a phase separation into a fraction x of thickness nXh and a fraction 1-x of thickness (n+1) Xh, such that D=[xn+(l-x) (n+l)] K if the air also favors B-rich domains, c If the air favors A-rich domains instead, the phase separation happens in a fraction x of thickness (n-l/2)A and a fraction 1-x of thickness (n+ 1/2)X with n= 1,2,3... d If the block copolymer film undergoes dewetting at the substrate, droplets form with a step-pyramide like structure ( Tower of Babel [30]). 

By using a dewetting process micrometer-sized domes of polymers were formed on solid substrates, and it was found that the aggregation state and ftius the photophysical properties of incoiporated d e molecules depend on the dome size. During dewetting two processes compete, the formation of polymer dorr s and the aggr lion of the dye. Thus, due to the namics of the process self-organized mesoscopic and hierarchic structures can be formed. 

The authors distinguish between three different cases for the dewetting mechanism (Figure 9). In thin films as well as in the bulk, a regular bilayer morphology is developed. Disordering into an isotropic melt occurs in two steps. A smectic mesophase is formed before the layered structure finally breaks up at elevated temperatures. This transition is characteristically effected by the interfaces in thin films on a flat substrate and, as a consequence, a peculiar self-dewetting is observed. 

---