Open AccessStructural-mechanical AFM study of inhomogeneous stiff nanocoating of soft polymer substrate
Author(s) -
И. А. Морозов,
A. S. Kamenetskikh
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/699/1/012031
Subject(s) - materials science , polymer , wetting , composite material , surface energy , coating , elastic modulus , modulus , dispersion (optics) , elastic energy , substrate (aquarium) , polymer substrate , atomic force microscopy , contact angle , nanotechnology , optics , thermodynamics , oceanography , physics , geology
Modification of polymer with low-energy gas plasma is used to change the wettability of the surface and, as a consequence, to improve the interactions with biological objects. As a result of such treatment, a nanolayer, which is stiffer than the initial surface, is formed on a broad class of polymers. Elastic polyurethane is one of the widely used polymers. This is two-phase material consisting of soft and hard blocks. Its surface was treated by low-energy argon plasma and studied by an atomic force microscopy (AFM): the structure becomes rough and mechanically inhomogeneous depending on the part of the surface treated (hard or soft blocks of the material). The average value of elastic modulus increases with the treatment time, but the average thickness of the coating does not change, having a wide dispersion. All these features are related with the heterogeneous surface peculiarities of the initial polymer.