Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.60, No.2, 898-907, 2021
Large-Scale and Low-Cost Preparation of Ordered Honeycomb-Patterned Film by Solvent Evaporation-Induced Phase Separation Method
A large-scale and low-cost method for producing highly ordered honeycomb-patterned film using commonly commercialized polymers was proposed. This method provides the ability to prepare honeycomb-patterned films in normal indoor environments without the need to maintain a certain relative humidity and without the addition of stabilizers. This method can produce a uniform and highly ordered honeycomb structure in semiclosed substrates in areas with limited humidity and limited curvature. At the same time, it can be used for large surfaces and on objects of different shapes. The pore size could be controlled by choosing an optimal solvent-nonsolvent ratio and modulating the experimental processing conditions. A film with thickness of 800 pm, prepared using S wt % PS in CH2Cl2 with 1 wt % propylene glycol, showed a highly ordered honeycomb pattern and hence proved to be the most suitable formulation for manufacturing PS honeycomb-patterned films. This approach can be applied to manufacture honeycomb-patterned film on a large scale with significantly improved hydrophobic properties. The integration of low-cost and large-scale fabrication of ordered honeycomb-patterned film has widespread application potential for future commercial technology equipment that needs certain functions.