Optimizing polymer brush coverage to develop highly coherent sub-5nm oxide films by ion inclusion

Area selective deposition is a promising technique for positional self-alignment of materials at a pre-patterned surface. Critical to this is the development of molecular systems that have selective surface binding and can act as a template to material growth. This paper reports how end functionalized polymers can be used to create oxide films through a grafting method. Here, we detail a facile approach for rapid grafting (in seconds) of polymer brush films with complete coverage over large areas with high uniformity (pinhole free). Subsequent conversion to an oxide (~3-4 nm thickness) is performed via liquid phase metal ion infiltration. Exposing the covalently grafted polymer brush (P2VP-OH) to a metal salt-solvent solution (using the Al3+ ion as a model species) swells the polymer, facilitating ion inclusion. Early results suggest a solvent mediated approach to polymer film infiltration can be used to develop inorganic films in a facile process. Whilst data shows inclusion into both large area and patt...