Wetting and electrowetting properties of carbon nanotube templated parylene films

Zuankai Wang, Ya Ou, Toh Ming Lu, Nikhil Koratkar

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we compared the wetting and electrowetting properties of a planar parylene (poly(p-xylylene)) film to those of a nanostructured parylene film. To generate the nanostructured film, we used an aligned array of multiwalled carbon nanotubes as a template; a thin coating of parylene was deposited on the nanotube template to generate a parylene film with a nanoscale roughness structure. Static contact angle measurements indicated a very significant increase in the water contact angle from ∼73° for planar parylene to ∼110° for the nanotemplated parylene. In addition, we performed electrowetting experiments to dynamically tune the contact angle by application of electric potential. Interestingly, the flat parylene film showed contact angle saturation at an applied voltage of ≥40 V, while the nanotemplated parylene film did not experience saturation in the contact angle response even for voltages up to 80 V. These results show that engineering a nanoscale roughness structure to a polymer film results in significant changes to the wetting and electrowetting properties of the polymer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4296-4299
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume111
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 May 2007
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Surfaces, Coatings and Films
  • Materials Chemistry

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