Crosslinking poly(acrylic glycidyl ether) honeycomb film by cationic photopolymerization and its converting to inorganic SiO2 film

Highly ordered hexagonal patterns of homopolymer poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) thin film was successfully fabricated via a one-step static breath figure process. The regularity and pore size of the films can be modulated by changing solvent composition or polymer concentration. The stable PGMA honeycomb film were formed via cationic photopolymerization due to the epoxide group on the side chain of PGMA. After photo-crosslinked, not only the patterned structures were well preserved, but also the solvent resistance as well as thermal stability of the film was significantly improved. The obtained film could be used as template to assemble SiO2 particles via chemical vapor deposition at mild condition. Under high temperature, the honeycomb film was burned up and the silica particles were sintered into SiO2 microbowl arrays, which could be tunable by varying the structure of the obtained template. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.