Nucleation and growth of microdroplets of ionic liquids deposited by physical vapor method onto different surfaces

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2018

Authors

José C. S. Costa (Author) FEUP; Ana F. S. M. G. Coelho (Author) Other; Adélio Mendes (Author) FEUP; Luís M. N. B. F. Santos (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Applied Surface Science

Vol. 428

Pages: 242-249

ISSN: 0169-4332

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 24 Citations

Scopus - 26 Citations

INSPEC

Associated Projects

LEPABE - Laboratório de Engenharia de Processos, Ambiente, Biotecnologia e Energia

LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION - LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00N-1MY

DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.09.137

Abstract (EN): Nanoscience and technology has generated an important area of research in the field of properties and functionality of ionic liquids (ILs) based materials and their thin films. This work explores the deposition process of ILs droplets as precursors for the fabrication of thin films, by means of physical vapor deposition (PVD). It was found that the deposition (by PVD on glass, indium tin oxide, graphene/nickel and gold-coated quartz crystal surfaces) of imidazolium [C(4)mim][NTf2] and pyrrolidinium [C(4)C(1)Pyrr][NTf2] based ILs generates micro/nanodroplets with a shape, size distribution and surface coverage that could be controlled by the evaporation flow rate and deposition time. No indication of the formation of a wettinglayer prior to the island growth was found. Based on the time-dependent morphological analysis of the micro/nanodroplets, a simple model for the description of the nucleation process and growth of ILs droplets is presented. The proposed model is based on three main steps: minimum free area to promote nucleation; first order coalescence; second order coalescence.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 8