Method for modifying surfaces with ultra thin films

摘要

A faster and more efficient method for applying ultra thin films to substrate surfaces is disclosed. The method comprises heating a film forming composition comprising amphiphilic molecules to a liquid state, immersing the substrate surface in the heated liquid composition to heat the surface, and washing away the excess composition. For surfaces that ordinarily have insufficient or no chemical moieties reactive with the amphiphilic molecules, the immersion in the heated composition causes the substrate to become porous and expose previously unavailable chemically reactive moieties in the surface matrix. The amphiphilic molecules then self-assemble, chemically bond to the surface matrix and self-polymerize with each other and with other surface matrix-bound and/or surface-bound molecules to form the ultra thin surface film. The method is also faster and more efficient for coating non porous and metal surfaces.