IMPRINT OF HONEYCOMB PATTERN ON PDMS ELASTOMER

摘要

Recently a method that utilizes the condensation of micrometer-sized water droplets on evaporating solutions of polymers has been reported for the preparation of porous thin films with fine hexagonal periodicity, honeycomb films. Here we report a method for imprinting a honeycomb pattern on the PDMS (poly(dimethyl siloxane)) elastomer. For the preparation of the honeycomb film, a benzene solution of amphiphilic copolymer was cast at high atmospheric humidity. On the film the PDMS precursor was poured and cured. The cured PDMS with the honeycomb film was peeled from the slide glass. The PDMS was rinsed with the solvent to remove the honeycomb film. The exposed PDMS surface was observed using SEM and AFM. The pattern-imprinted PDMS surface can be used as a template for patterning of materials, which are difficult to produce a honeycomb pattern by the conventional method described above. Here, we show some examples of such honeycomb-originated structures composed of polymers or nanoparti-cles, which were fabricated using the pattern-imprinted PDMS. The present study shows an example of the secondary uses of the self-organized structures for the cost-saving mi-croanofabrication of various materials.