Plasma polymers: From thin films to nanocolumnar coatings

Plasma polymers are employed in impressive range of applications due to their unique properties. Although films of plasma polymers are traditionally described as smooth and pinhole free, the possibility to produce nanorough and nanostructured plasma polymerized coatings receives increasing attention. In this study, we tested a fully vacuum-based strategy for production of nanostructured plasma polymers. In the first step of this method, the smooth substrate is seeded by plasma polymer nanoparticles produced by means of a gas aggregation source with a semi-hollow magnetron equipped with a Nylon target. In the second step, the nanoparticles are subjected to fluxes of organic fragments produced by magnetron sputtering of Nylon and such depositions are performed at various angles of incidence. As observed, this enables at higher incidence angles to prepare coatings with well-separated individual plasma polymer nanocolumns.