Title: Preparation of hydrophobic honeycomb films with an amphiphilic copolymer via the breath figure method

Authors: Dejie Zhou; Qingzhao Wang

Addresses: College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266510, China; College of International Education, Shandong Jiaotong University, 250357, China ' College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266510, China

Abstract: Fabrication of honeycomb films with amphiphilic fluorinated ABC-type triblock copolymer via the breath figure method is introduced in this paper. The triblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polystyreneblock-poly (perfluorohexylethyl acrylate) (MeOPEO-b-PSt-b-PFHEA) was synthesised by atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP). The film with ordered honeycomb structure was fabricated under selected solvent, controlled humidity and polymer concentration. We analysed the influence of different factors on the film morphology. The triblock polymer we prepared exhibited a regular honeycomb surface structure in a carbon disulfide solution at 5 g/L concentrations and 75% humidity. Surface wetting properties indicate that the amphiphilic triblock polymer can achieve high hydrophobicity by varying the concentration and humidity. The obtained polymer of the honeycomb pore structure is expected to be used in hydrophobic materials.

Keywords: honeycomb film; amphiphilic block copolymer; hydrophobic effect; ATRP; atom transfer radical polymerisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2022.128943

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2022 Vol.19 No.6/7/8/9/10/11, pp.434 - 446

Received: 01 Feb 2021
Accepted: 06 Apr 2021
Published online: 13 Feb 2023 *

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