Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Structure-Function Correlations in Sputter Deposited Gold/Fluorocarbon Multilayers for Tuning Optical Response

Version 1 : Received: 26 June 2019 / Approved: 27 June 2019 / Online: 27 June 2019 (11:11:33 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Pandit, P.; Schwartzkopf, M.; Rothkirch, A.; Roth, S.V.; Bernstorff, S.; Gupta, A. Structure–Function Correlations in Sputter Deposited Gold/Fluorocarbon Multilayers for Tuning Optical Response. Nanomaterials 2019, 9, 1249. Pandit, P.; Schwartzkopf, M.; Rothkirch, A.; Roth, S.V.; Bernstorff, S.; Gupta, A. Structure–Function Correlations in Sputter Deposited Gold/Fluorocarbon Multilayers for Tuning Optical Response. Nanomaterials 2019, 9, 1249.

Abstract

A new strategy to nanoengineer gold/fluorocarbon multilayer (ML) nanostructures is reported. We have investigated the morphological changes occuring at the metal-polymer interface in multilayer structures with varying volume fraction of gold (Au) and the kinetic growth aspect of the microscale properties of nano-sized Au in plasma polymer fluorocarbon (PPFC). Investigations were carried out at various temperatures and annealing time by means of grazing incidence small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS and GIWAXS). We have fabricated a series of multilayers with variying volume fraction (0.12, 0.27, 0.38) of Au and bilayer periodicity in ML structure. They show an interesting granular structure consisting of nearly spherical shaped nanoparticles within the polymer layer. The nanoparticle (NP) morphology changes due to the collective effects of NPs diffusion within ensembles in the in-plane vicinity and inter-layer with increasing temperature. The in-plane NPs size distinctly increases (from 1.9 to 4 nm) with increasing temperature. The NPs become more spherical thus reducing the surface energy. Linear growth of NPs with temperature and time shows diffusion-controled growth of NPs in the ML structure. The structural stability of the multilayer is controlled by the volume ratio of the metal in polymer. At room temperature UV-Vis shows a blueshift of the plasmon peak from 560 nm in ML Au/PTFE_1 to 437 nm in Au/PTFE_3. We have identified the fabrication and post-deposition annealing conditions to limit the Local Surface Plasmon resonance (LSPR) shift (from 〖∆λ〗_LSPR=180 nm (Au/PTFE_1) to 〖∆λ〗_LSPR=67 nm (Au/PTFE_3 ML)) and their optical response over a wide visible wavelength range. A variation in the dielectric constant of the polymer in precence of varying Au inclusion is found to be the main factor affecting the LSPR frequency. Our finding may provide insights in Nano engineering ML structure can be useful to systematically control the growth of NPs in polymer matrix.

Keywords

nanocomposite, metal-polymer-interface, multilayer, structure-function correlation, indirect band gap, GISAXS, GIWAXS, UV-Vis.

Subject

Chemistry and Materials Science, Materials Science and Technology

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