Pulsed Plasma Deposition of Super-Hydrophobic Nanospheres

Repetitive bursts of continuous wave plasma polymerization on the minute time scale are found to lead to the deposition of well-defined polymeric nanospheres. This unique mode of film growth is attributed to a high level of monomer replenishment in combination with minimal secondary reaction processes (e.g., fragmentation, cross-linking, and etching). In the case of the 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl acrylate precursor, high contact angle (super-hydrophobic) surfaces are produced by this method.