Thin films composed of nanoparticles exhibit synergistic properties, making them useful for numerous advanced applications. Nanoparticle thin films (NTFs), however, have a very low resistance to mechanical loading and abrasion, presenting a major bottleneck to their widespread use and commercialization. High-temperature sintering has been shown to improve the mechanical durability of NTFs on inorganic substrates; however, these high-temperature processes are not amenable to organic substrates. In this study, we demonstrate that the mechanical durability of various nanoparticle thin films on glass and polycarbonate substrates can be drastically improved using atomic layer deposition (ALD) at a relatively low temperature. More importantly, ALD-reinforced nanoparticle films retain the original functionality such as superhydrophilicity and antireflection properties, demonstrating the utility of ALD as a reinforcement method for nanoparticle thin films. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of ALD materials on the mechanical properties of NTFs by nanoindentation. We demonstrate that the mechanical properties of ALD-reinforced NTFs strongly depend on the mechanical properties of ALD materials rather than the compositional matching between ALD and nanoparticle materials. Our study also illustrates that mechanical testing of ALD-reinforced NTFs using nanoindentation provides a straightforward method to characterize the mechanical properties of ultrathin ALD thin films.

Mechanical reinforcement of nanoparticle thin films using atomic layer deposition

244th National Meeting (2012)

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