Hello all,
I have been trying to prepare thin PMMA films (10-100 nm) on Au substrate through spin coating. I tried different methods but I could not see any fringe pattern of PMMA film on Au when I check thickness using X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR). Could someone tell me the procedure to prepare thin PMMA on Gold substrate?
Thank you
You can use DCM solvent with the concetration of 10mg/ml, spin coating at 2000rpm/60s. You should get around 60nm or less, which would avoid the optical interference. You may consider the following solvents if you wish.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-is-the-best-solvent-to-use-to-prepare-PMMA-solution
Thank you, Dr. Xuhua Wang.
I could prepare PMMA thin films on SiO2 and SiOH substrates. I have been doing that for quite some time now. But when I tried to prepare PMMA on the gold substrate I can not observe any XRR fringes.
I tried different solvents like Toluene, Chloroform, THF and adopted different combinations of spin coating speed and time. I wonder if there is something with the substrate.
I have also tried cleaning the substrate using the UV/O3 technique, but every time I get the same result.
Thank You
Dear Tulika Sharma,
You could try some SAM layer on gold coated substrates before spin-coating PMMA. Alternatively you could try the attached method.
Thank you, Dr. Xuhua Wang
I will try to prepare according to your suggestions.
Thank you for your help.
Dear Tulika Sharma,
You can try using Anisole as a solvent. I think if you use low concentration it might be difficult to get a uniform film so better to use 10 mg/ml or more as mentioned above. Also, make sure that the surface is fully covered before you start spin coating, and better to use two-step spin coating. In addition, you can try two or three times coating with a short period of drying in between as the last option.Good luck
Hello Henok Getachew Girma ,
I think I will try two-step spin coating.
Thank you for your suggestions.
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