Breath figure in non-aqueous vapor

Abstract

In this paper we reported the preparation of porous honeycomb polymer film using a static breath figure (BF) method under non-aqueous atmospheres. Methanol and ethanol vapors were chosen as the atmosphere in which the BF process was conducted. It is found that honeycomb films with ordered pores can be obtained with methanol and ethanol droplets arrays as the templates. The influence of the atmosphere on the film morphology, including the pore shape, size and the degree of pore packing order, was investigated. Furthermore, the formation process of the BF arrays under these alcohol vapors was investigated using a non-planar substrate method. Finally it is shown that the honeycomb films with different pores can be used to prepare highly ordered ceramic micropatterns with adjustable sizes, as well as the siloxane-based soft stamps. Our results prove that the BF method is not only suitable for water vapor, but is also compatible with other organic vapors. Also this paper develops a facile way to control the morphology features of the BF honeycomb films by changing the vapor atmospheres, which is valuable when designing and fabricating ordered microstructures.