Surface structuring using photo-polymerization at the interface between vinyl-modified quartz and a dynamic phase separating solution

Spinodal phase separation was initiated using a nanosecond infrared laser temperature-jump at the interface between a modified quartz surface and a 2-butoxyethanol-water solution. The evolving phase domains formed spatial distributions of solvents and solutes at the interface. Radical photo-polymerization was induced in this solution using pulsed UV laser irradiation. Various polymer patterns formed at the quartz surface, depending on the UV pulse delay time after the initiation of phase separation, the fluence, and the number of pulses. Patterns which formed at earlier delay times were smaller and more spatially regular than those which formed later.