posted on 2023-12-08, 22:03authored byG. Cristian Vásquez, Martin Dulle, Beate Förster, Margarita Kruteva, Sascha Ehlert, Stephan Förster
Ultrathin polymer
nanocomposite films are gaining importance in
electronic, optical, magnetic, or sensor devices with widespread applications
in the areas of electronics, information technology, and medicine.
Future developments in ultrathin nanocomposite films require the fabrication
of ever thinner films with controllable thickness, homogeneous nanoparticle
distribution, and large areas. We here demonstrate a dip-coating-delamination
method to prepare ultrathin and large-area polymer nanocomposite films
on various substrates or as free-standing films. We demonstrate thickness
control in the range between 17 and 150 nm, controlled via film withdrawing
speed and nanoparticle volume fraction. Ultrathin films with magnetic,
semiconductor, and down-conversion nanoparticles having spherical,
rod-like, or platelet shapes can be prepared. We show that the magnetic
and optical properties of the nanoparticles are well preserved by
the fabrication method. Furthermore, we demonstrate the assembly of
ultrathin large-area hetero multilayer nanocomposite films. This method
thus provides a versatile, well-controllable, and scalable method
to prepare supported or free-standing multifunctional large-area ultrathin
nanocomposite films with low material consumption.