Understanding the Mechanism of Solvent-Mediated Adhesion of Vacuum Deposited Au and Pt Thin Films onto PMMA Substrates
- ORNL
- James Madison University
The adhesion of 100 nm thick electron-beam deposited Au and Pt and magnetron sputtered Au thin films onto poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrates can be significantly enhanced to over 90% adhesion by either spin-casting or vapor-exposure to hydrohalocarbon solvents prior to metal deposition compared to samples that are either cleaned in isopropyl alcohol or pre-treated with a remote O2 plasma. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and evolved gas Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (EGA-FTIR) reveal the presence of residual halogenated solvent molecules at the PMMA surface which chemically activates the surface to produce a stable chemical interaction between the noble metal film and the PMMA. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the halogenated solvent molecules preferentially form a Lewis acid-base adduct with the oxygen atoms in the ester group in PMMA which is consistent with the measured enthalpy of desorption of chloroform (CHCl3) on PMMA determined by EGA-FTIR to be 36 kJ mol-1. The DFT model also supports the experimentally observed change in the high resolution XPS O 1s peak at 533.77 eV after metallization attributed to a change in the local bonding environment of the bridging O in the PMMA ester group. DFT also predicts that the deposited metal atom (M) inserts into the C-X bond where X is the halogen atom on either CHCl3 or bromoform (CHBr3) to form a O M X interaction that is observed by a M-X bond in the high resolution XPS Cl 2p3/2 peak at 198.03 eV and Br 3p3/2 peak at 182.06 eV. A range of solvents with differing polarities for PMMA pre-treatment have been used and it is proposed that non-complexing solvents result in significant metal adhesion improvement. The Gutmann acceptor number can be used to predict the effectiveness of solvent treatment for noble metal adhesion. A model is proposed in which the bond energy of the C-X bond of the solvent must be sufficiently low so that the C-X bond can be cleaved to form the M-X bond. Supporting this model, a negative control of vapor phase exposure to fluoroform (CHF3) is shown to have no effect on noble metal adhesion due to the higher bond dissociation energy of the C-F bond compared to the C-Cl and C-Br bond energy. The surface activation of vapor-phase exposed PMMA surfaces is technologically significant for the fabrication of polymer microdevices requiring Au or Pt metallization.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Shared Research Equipment Collaborative Research Center
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1056959
- Journal Information:
- Advanced Functional Materials, Journal Issue: 11
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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