Thin film coatings surface crystallinity

The nanostructured thin-film electrode was first developed at 3M Company by Debe et al. [40] and Debe [41], who prepared thin films of oriented crystalline organic whiskers on which Ft had been deposited. The film was then transferred to the membrane surface using a decal method, and a nanostructured thin-film catalyst-coated membrane was formed as shown in Figure 2.10. Interestingly, both the nanostructured thin-film (NSTF) catalyst and the CL are nonconventional. The latter contains no carbon or additional ionomer and is 20-30 times thinner than the conventional dispersed Pt/ carbon-based CL. In addition, the CL was more durable than conventional CCMs made from Pt/C and Nation ionomer [40]. 

Abstract. Liquid phase deposition methods are a useful way to create mineral oxide films from aqueous solution under near-ambient conditions. These approaches have been applied to the creation of ceramic coatings on polymers and on polymer-matrix composites. Control has been achieved over the adherence and crystallinity of the solution-deposited thin films based on controlling the composition of both the deposition solution and the substrate surface. The challenge of depositing such films from water, while minimizing film cracking has also been addressed. Crack-free ceramic films of up to 200 nm thickness have been achieved on a variety of polymer substrates. 

Open tubular columns are simply capillary tubes in which the inside of the column wall is used as the support for the liquid phase. These wall-coated open tubular columns (WCOT) have the stationary phase distributed in the form of a thin film on the inside surface of the open capillary tube, the walls thus serving as the support. In order to reduce the thickness of the liquid phase film, a porous layer may be formed on the inside wall of the capillary tubing and then coated with the liquid phase to produce a support-coated open tubular column (SCOT). Porous-layer open tubular colunms (PLOT) are similar to SCOT colunms, the difference being that in the former, the stationary phase is deposited on fine crystalline particles or glass powder which is adsorbed onto the walls of the tube. In both cases, the available surface area of the wall is increased, and allows an increased amount of liquid phase to be accommodated in the same length and diameter of tubing. The whisker-walled (WW) colunm consists of whiskers chemically etched on the surface of the wall, which also result in a significant increase in the available surface area. Wall-coated, porous-layer, and support-coated capillary columns are all available as whisker-walled, i.e., WWCOT, WWPLOT, and WWSCOT, respectively. 

GHI 12] GmMBEU C.M., SniA F., Ostaci R.V., et al., Crystalline vanadimn nitride ultra-thin films obtained at room temperature by pulsed laser deposition . Surface and Coatings technology, vol. 211, pp. 158-162, 2012. 

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