Initiated chemical vapor deposition of fluoropolymer coatings for the surface modification of complex geometries

Initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) is a one-step, soventless process that can be used to produce polymeric thin films. The iCVD technique has been used to polymerize a wide variety of vinyl monomers such as glycidyl methacrylate (adhesive) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (hydrophilic). The proposed polymerization mechanism is the classical free radical polymerization mechanism of vinyl monomers. Monomer and initiator gases are fed into a vacuum chamber where resistively heated wires are used to thermally decompose the initiator molecules into free radicals. The free radicals then attack the vinyl bonds of the monomer molecules. Propagation occurs on the surface of a cooled substrate. This thesis presents an in-depth mechanistic study of the iCVD deposition of low surface energy poly(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate) (PPFDA) thin films. PPFDA films have many uses due to their hydrophobic and oleophobic properties. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the iCVD PPFDA films showed complete retention of the fluorine moieties. Deposition rates as high as 375 nm/min were achieved. It was found that the deposition rate and molecular weight increases with decreasing substrate temperature and increasing monomer partial pressure.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Gupta, Malancha, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karen K. Gleason.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39348
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39348

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39348