Surface characteristics of polymer nanocomposites

Date

2021-04-12

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Ian Emge, Leslie Scheurer, Ryan Grant, Narasimha Prasad, Lisa Kelly, Bradley Arnold, Fow-Sen Choa, Brett Setera, N. B. Singh, "Surface characteristics of polymer nanocomposites," Proc. SPIE 11757, Smart Biomedical and Physiological Sensor Technology XVIII, 117570X (12 April 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2585834

Rights

This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0

Subjects

Abstract

The performance of optical and electronic detectors and sensors are affected by surface and bulk impurities. In some cases, nanoscale thin films are used as detectors and their life cycle is significantly decreased. In the case of conformal shapes, surfaces with different polishing, decoration and geometries exhibit unusual wetting and nucleation characteristics for impurities and this requires continuous attention for cleaning. The situation for space borne components and vehicles surfaces exposed to wetting liquids requires remote cleaning. In the present paper, we report the effect of surface topographies of substrates with nanoengineered titanium oxide and copper oxide nanoparticles embodied in polystyrene and study the effect of the composites to create different hydrophobic characteristics with great potential for detectors and sensors operating in ultra-violet and infrared regions.