I have spin coated PDMS on silicon substrate with nanowires. Now i need to remove bit of PDMS to open up the tips of nanowires. To achieve this i have used the oxygen plasma etching but i am not able to remove top part of PDMS. can anyone suggest me that how to remove bit amount of PDMS?
This paper reports an etching solution of "tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) and N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) at 1:6 volume ratio with the etching rate approximately 6 um/min" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4000402
I suspect, prior to doing such a thing, remove the PDMS altogether and see if your nanowires have survived. I've noted that, after applying any sort of hardening material, after removal, that the nanowires have been damaged or destroyed by the process. If they do survive, it might be wise, through SEM, to examine the morphology of he system, to determine the relationship of the heights of the two materials (NWs and PDMS) in order to determine how much must be removed, and then another SEM step, to see that, with some means to verify just how deeply etching has gone. The first answer given here, might be useful, but 6um/min might be a little bit fast for nanoscale use. If there is only half a micron to go, you have five seconds to work.
Can you define 'oxygen plasma' more closely? Especially the power matters here I think. Low power oxygen plasmas will not really remove much polymer, only modify the surface of the polymer.
- Badges
- Science topic