PECVD and PEALD on polymer substrates (Part II): Understanding and tuning of barrier and membrane properties of thin films

TL;DR

This paper explores how PECVD and PEALD thin films on polymers can be engineered and analyzed to optimize barrier and membrane properties, emphasizing the importance of film structure, pore size, and chemistry.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of thin film growth, analysis, and theoretical modeling to understand and tune transport properties on polymer substrates.

Findings

Deposition parameters influence barrier effectiveness and permeability.

Understanding pore size and surface chemistry is crucial for transport control.

The article suggests future research directions in film engineering and analysis.

Abstract

This feature article presents insights concerning the correlation of PECVD and PEALD thin film structures with their barrier or membrane properties. While in principle similar precursor gases and processes can be applied, the adjustment of deposition parameters for different polymer substrates can lead to either an effective diffusion barrier or selective permeabilities. In both cases the understanding of the film growth and the analysis of the pore size distribution and the pore surface chemistry is of utmost importance for the understanding of the related transport properties of small molecules. In this regard the article presents both concepts of thin film engineering and analytical as well as theoretical approaches leading to a comprehensive description of the state of the art in this field. Moreover, based on the presented correlation of film structure and molecular transport properties perspectives of future relevant research in this area is presented.