Effect of nanoscopic defects on barrier performance of thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition on flexible polymers

The growing need for increasingly miniaturized devices has placed high importance and demands on nanofabrication technologies with high-quality, low temperatures, and low-cost techniques. In the past few years, the development and recent advances in atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes boosted interest in their use in advanced electronic and nano/microelectromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS) device manufacturing. In this context, non-thermal plasma (NTP) technology has been highlighted because it allowed the ALD technique to expand its process window and the fabrication of several nanomaterials at reduced temperatures, allowing thermosensitive substrates to be covered with good formability and uniformity. In this review article, we comprehensively describe how the NTP changed the ALD universe and expanded it in device fabrication for different applications. We also present an overview of the efforts and developed strategies to gather the NTP and ALD technologies with the consecutive formation of plasma-assisted ALD (PA-ALD) technique, which has been successfully applied in nanofabrication and surface modification. The advantages and limitations currently faced by this technique are presented and discussed. We conclude this review by showing the atomic layer etching (ALE) technique, another development of NTP and ALD junction that has gained more and more attention by allowing significant advancements in plasma-assisted nanofabrication.

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Plasma-Assisted Nanofabrication: The Potential and Challenges in Atomic Layer Deposition and Etching

Novel approach to measure water vapor permeability in pre-painted metals using adapted cup method: Correlation between permeation rate and tendency to blistering

Construction of durable polyurea/polyvinylidene chloride composite film with high water vapor barrier property

Controlling plasticizer migration based on crystal structure and micromorphology in propionylated starch-based food packaging nanocomposites.

Surface characterization of plasma-modified low density polyethylene by attenuated total reflectance fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

In this work, we evaluate the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), the permeability (P), solubility (S), and diffusion (D) coefficients of Paraloid B44, Paraloid B72, and Incralac coatings in the temperature range of 5–35°C. The Arrhenius function—diffusion activation energy and preexponential factor—has also been determined from the data: $$D_{B44} = 35.2\;{\text{cm}}^{2} \;{\text{s}}^{ - 1} \exp \left( { - 25\;{\text{kJ mol}}^{ - 1} /{\text{RT}}} \right)$$
 ; $$D_{B72} = 9.5\;{\text{cm}}^{2} \;{\text{s}}^{ - 1} \exp \left( { - 23\;{\text{kJ mol}}^{ - 1} /{\text{RT}}} \right)$$
 ; $$D_{\text{Incralac}} = 622.8\;{\text{cm}}^{2} \;{\text{s}}^{ - 1} { \exp }\left( { - 28\;{\text{kJ mol}}^{ - 1} /{\text{RT}}} \right)$$
 . These resins are important coating materials, for example, for conservators to protect metallic artifacts, such as statues, against corrosion. Despite Paraloid B44 and B72 resins being considered as reference materials in conservation practice, that is, new coating materials (either water vapor retarders or transmitters) are often compared to them, there are no comprehensive data for the quantities describing the vapor permeability (P, S, D) of these materials. The measurements are based on the ISO cup-method using substrate/coating composite samples. The strength of this technique is that it can also be used when the coating is non-self-supporting; nevertheless, P, S, and D can be deduced for the coating layer itself, and it seems to be a standardizable procedure for comparative performance testing of coating materials. Paraloid B72 layers exhibited higher WVTRs—from 39 to 315 g m−2 day−1 as the temperature increased from 5 to 35°C—compared to Paraloid B44 and Incralac coatings—from 17 to 190 g m−2 day−1, respectively. The transmission rate parameters were also compared to the results of corrosion tests. Incralac was the most effective corrosion inhibitor, and the performance of the B44 was better than the B72, which is in good agreement with the transmission rate tests.

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Water vapor transmission properties of acrylic organic coatings

In this work, we report the development of a measurement chamber linked with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) for in situ investigation of the effect of thin film cracking on the gas permeation of coated flexible polymeric substrates. The chamber enables the establishment of a bulged state of the substrate/coating system, which causes the cracking of the coating layer. The increase in the gas permeation rate due to the presence of cracks can be monitored precisely using the QMS without movement or re-clamping of the samples between each measurement step. This method eliminates the probability of uncontrollable mechanical changes in the sample, and with the mass spectrometer, high sensitivity, reliability, and reproducibility of the experimental data become available.

Réka Lilla Kovács

Papers

Surface characterization of plasma-modified low density polyethylene by attenuated total reflectance fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

Water vapor transmission properties of acrylic organic coatings

Effect of nanoscopic defects on barrier performance of thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition on flexible polymers

A versatile technique for in situ investigation of the effect of thin film cracking on gas permeation of coated flexible polymers.