Polycarbonate etching

Fig. 4. Diagram of the two-step process to manufacture nucleation track membranes, (a) Polycarbonate film is exposed to charged particles in a nuclear reactor, (b) Tracks left by particles are preferentially etched into uniform cylindrical pores (8).

Minor and potential new uses include flue-gas desulfurization (44,45), silver-cleaning formulations (46), thermal-energy storage (47), cyanide antidote (48), cement additive (49), aluminum-etching solutions (50), removal of nitrogen dioxide from flue gas (51), concrete-set accelerator (52), stabilizer for acrylamide polymers (53), extreme pressure additives for lubricants (54), multiple-use heating pads (55), in soap and shampoo compositions (56), and as a flame retardant in polycarbonate compositions (57). Moreover, precious metals can be recovered from difficult ores using thiosulfates (58). Use of thiosulfates avoids the environmentally hazardous cyanides. 

Track-etched membranes are made by exposing thin films (mica, polycarbonate, etc) to fission fragments from a radiation source. The high energy particles chemically alter material in their path. The material is then dissolved by suitable reagents, leaving nearly cylindrical holes (19). 

Hollomon s ethos, combined with his ferocious energy and determination, and his sustained determination to recruit only the best researchers to join his group, over the next 15 years led to a sequence of remarkable innovations related to materials, including man-made diamond, high-quality thermal insulation, a vacuum circuit-breaker, products based on etched particle tracks in irradiated solids, polycarbonate plastic and, particularly, the Lucalox alumina envelope for a metal-vapour lamp. (Of course many managers besides Hollomon were involved.) A brilliant, detailed account of these innovations and the arrangements that made them possible was later written by Guy Suits and his successor as director, Arthur Bueche (Suits and Bueche 1967). Some of these specific episodes will feature later in this book, but it helps to reinforce the points made here about Hollomon s coneeption of broad research on materials if I point out that the invention of translucent alumina tubes for lamps was... 

While polymeric surfaces with relatively high surface energies (e.g. polyimides, ABS, polycarbonate, polyamides) can be adhered to readily without surface treatment, low surface energy polymers such as olefins, silicones, and fluoropolymers require surface treatments to increase the surface energy. Various oxidation techniques (such as flame, corona, plasma treatment, or chromic acid etching) allow strong bonds to be obtained to such polymers. 

Polystyrene-PDMS block copolymers4l2), and poly(n-butyl methacrylate-acrylic acid)-PDMS graft copolymers 308) have been used as pressure sensitive adhesives. Hot melt adhesives based on polycarbonate-PDMS segmented copolymers 413) showed very good adhesion to substrates with low surface energies without the need for surface preparation, such as etching. 

Within the scope of thermoelectric nanostructures, Sima et al. [161] prepared nanorod (fibril) and microtube (tubule) arrays of PbSei. , Tej by potentiostatic electrodeposition from nitric acid solutions of Pb(N03)2, H2Se03, and Te02, using a 30 fim thick polycarbonate track-etch membrane, with pores 100-2,000 nm in diameter, as template (Cu supported). After electrodeposition the polymer membrane was dissolved in CH2CI2. Solid rods were obtained in membranes with small pores, and hollow tubes in those with large pores. The formation of microtubes rather than nanorods in the larger pores was attributed to the higher deposition current. 

FIG. 20-66 Track-etched 0.4-)lm polycarbonate membrane. Courtesy Milli-pore Corporation.)... 

The electroless plating procedure described above was used to plate the Au nanotubules into the pores of commercially available polycarbonate track-etch filters [Osmonics, 6 pm thick, pore dia. = 50 nm (28 nm-dia. Au tubules) or 30 nm (all other Au tubules), 6 X 10 pores cm ]. The... 

The deposition of a conductive polymer (polypyrrole) into either a track-etched polycarbonate or alumina membrane was either achieved by electrochemical reduc-... 

Similar approach has also been taken by Ferain and Legras [133,137,138] and De Pra et al. [139] to produce nanostructured materials based on the template of the membrane with etched pores. Polycarbonate film was also of use as the base membrane of the template, and micro- and nanopores were formed by precise control of the etching procedure. Their most resent report showed the successful formation of ultrasmall pores and electrodeposited materials of which sizes were as much as 20 nm [139]. Another attractive point of these studies is the deposited materials in the etched pores. Electrochemical polymerization of conjugated polymer materials was demonstrated in these studies, and the nanowires based on polypyrrole or polyaniline were formed with a fairly cylindrical shape reflecting the side wall structure of the etched pores. Figure 10 indicates the shape of the polypyrrole microwires with their dimension changes by the limitation of the thickness of the template. 

The term sample or blank preparation refers to a series of steps pertinent to TEM analysis. These include filter fusing, plasma etching, carbon coating, and specimen washing. Some of these steps may not be required if polycarbonate filters are used. 

To meet the need to monitor levels of 222Rn in houses, passive samplers have been developed which measure average concentrations over long periods and do not need power suplies. In the Karlsruhe dosimeter (Urban Piesch, 1981), a polycarbonate nuclear track detector foil is mounted inside a plastic cup. The mouth of the cup is closed with a filter to allow radon to enter but to exclude decay products. After exposure, the detector foil is etched and the tracks counted optically. This is a... 

Membranes with very regular pores of sizes down to around 10 nm can be prepared by track-etching [10], and, in principle, those membranes can be used for the fractionation of macromolecules in solution. A relatively thin (<35 pm) polymer film (typically from polyethylene terephthalate)/PET/or aromatic polycarbonate/PC/) is first bombarded with fission particles from a high-energy source. These particles... 

Fig. 3. (a) SEM image of the particle track-etched polycarbonate membrane, with a pore diameter of 1 (im (Martin, 1994). (b) SEM image of 2-/xm pores in a single-crystal mica film prepared by particle track-etching (Sun et al., 2000a). 

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