Spontaneous formation of discrete arrangement of particles by dipping ultraviolet/ozone‐treated poly(dimethylsiloxane) substrate in solution

The spontaneous formation of well‐ordered microstructures is an interesting research topic because such formation is useful for cost‐effective production of functional materials. In this article, we report a novel method for spontaneous formation of a discrete arrangement of particles using an ultraviolet/ozone‐treated poly(dimethylsiloxane) substrate. The substrate was first dipped in a solution (solvent: mixture of methanol and water, solute: sucrose or lithium perchlorate) in a sealed vessel filled with the vapor of the solvent, and was then dried in air to precipitate the solute as particles. In spite of the simplicity of the procedure, the particles were regularly and discretely arranged in a triangular lattice with a distance between the neighboring particles of about 48 µm. The mechanism of formation of the array was explained by considering the formation of regular dimples due to swelling of the substrate surface with the solution and the dewetting of the liquid film of the solution on the surface. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43506.