Injection molding of a nanostructured plate and measurement of its surface properties

This paper highlights recent research on the injection molding of a surface nanostructured substrate with super-hydrophobicity or dry adhesiveness. An anodic aluminum oxidation (AAO) membrane or layer on an Si wafer is used as a molding master for surface nanostructures. The AAO membrane or layer has closely packed nanoholes; depending on the AAO membrane used, the nanoholes have a diameter of around 200 nm and a depth that varies from a few hundred nanometers to 60 μm. This AAO master is installed directly in the injection molding tool, or the AAO holes are replicated on the nickel stamper by an electroforming process and installed in the injection molding tool.Either a high temperature (>Tg of the molding material) mold or a rapid heating (up to 200 °C) and cooling (<70 °C) mold is used to fill the high aspect ratio nanoholes with thermoplastic melt for the injection molding. These high aspect ratio nanoholes are extremely difficult to fill with melt in a conventional injection molding process. This paper proposes a new simple and efficient rapid heating and cooling method that heats the stamper by means of the electrical resistance of the stamper itself. Depending on the aspect ratio of the structures and the type of master, a chemical etching or mechanical ejecting process is used to release the molded surface nanostructures.With the use of an AAO membrane and a high temperature mold, some polypropylene disks with a nanohairy surface and some polycarbonate plates with a nanopillar on the surface are injection molded at several different mold temperatures for the purpose of studying the replication of the surface nanostructures. In addition, the contact angle of the water and the adhesion force on the molded surfaces are measured to investigate the effect of the surface nanostructures on the hydrophobicity or dry adhesiveness.