Kenneth K. S. Lau and, K. Gleason
Apr 11, 2006
Citations
2
Influential Citations
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Quality indicators
Journal
Macromolecules
Abstract
In a two-part investigation, an experimental study and a kinetic model analysis of the initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) of alkyl acrylate polymers are described. In this first part, an experimental study was performed to look at the effect of process parameters on iCVD polymerization. A homologous series of alkyl acrylates, from ethyl up to hexyl acrylate, were iCVD polymerized. The resulting polymers matched well spectroscopically with those from liquid-phase polymerization, demonstrating that stoichiometric polymers with no observable cross-linking can be achieved in a chemical vapor deposition environment. Deposition rate and molecular weight increased by a factor of over 300 and 60, respectively, when monomer saturated vapor pressure, Psat, was reduced from 42.6 to 0.584 Torr at equal gas pressures, PM. Over three times increase in deposition rate was observed for ethyl acrylate when substrate temperature was reduced from 29 to 17 °C. These trends are attributed to an increase in PM/Psat or,...