Metal PVD honey-combs coated with TIO2 and Al2O3 via PECVD suitable for sensoring applications

Abstract Economical and self-assembling polystyrene ‘Breath Figures’ method has been used to obtain a large polymeric 3D honey-comb structure substrate successively coated with metallic ductile films with thickness of few hundreds of nanometers deposited via DC magnetron sputtering. Finally, the obtained metallic 3D honey-comb structures have been functionalized by ceramic coatings such as titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) via radio frequency-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) having the role of the active parts. The films have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy to define their morphology, while energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) measurements were carried out to determine their elemental composition. The electrical characterization of the metallic films has been performed by using a four-point probe method. The sheet resistance R S of the films has been derived and the results discussed taking into account its dependence on the effective superficial length due to Breath Figures morphological benefit.