Transient materials, or materials with designed short lifetimes, are of great interest in many fields of research with applications including lithography, vaporizable electronics, drug delivery, and use as sacrificial layers in fabrication of microfluidic devices. Polymers offer a diverse platform to synthesize materials with desired transient properties. This work focuses on the development of polycarbonates as a thermally-triggered vaporizable substrate platform. Polycarbonates can decompose into volatile monomers upon heating, allowing for polymer transience. Good mechanical properties over the operational temperature ranges (-40 °C to 100 °C) can be combined with fast and clean decomposition at slightly higher temperatures to create an effective transient substrate. Therefore, characterization of the thermal and mechanical properties of vaporizable polycarbonates (VPC) and its composites are important. A custom-made VPC and blends with a commercially available polypropylene carbonate (PPC) were investigated to create thin and thick film substrates. These polymers resulted in a system with tunable thermal and mechanical properties. Both polycarbonates have acid sensitive backbones; therefore, when combined with an acid source, catalyzed decomposition can be observed, achieving a range of decomposition temperatures of 160 °C – 250 °C. Polymer nanocomposites were investigated to provide a range of mechanical properties. These composites resulted in Young’s moduli ranging from 4 MPa to ~2 GPa. Their tunable nature allows for designer control over the substrate’s properties based on application needs.

Tunable, thermal, and mechanical properties of polycarbonate composites for transient materials

251st National Meeting (2016)

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