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Hydrophobic Dielectrics of Fluoropolymer / BaTiO3 Nanocomposites for Low-Voltage and Charge Storing Electrowetting Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Murali K. Kilaru ,
Gui Lin ,
James E Mark  and
Jason C Heikenfeld
Murali K. Kilaru
Affiliation:
heikenjc@email.uc.edu, University of Cincinnati, Dept. of Elect. & Comp. Engin., Rhodes 836A, PO Box 210030, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, United States, 513-556-4763, 513-556-7326
Gui Lin
Affiliation:
linguicolin@yahoo.com.cn, University of Cincinnati, Chemistry, Crosley 1500, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, United States
James E Mark
Affiliation:
markje@email.uc.edu, University of Cincinnati, Chemistry, Crosley 1501B, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, United States
Jason C Heikenfeld
Affiliation:
heikenjc@email.uc.edu, University of Cincinnati, ECE, Rhodes 836A, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, United States
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Abstract

A hydrophobic fluoropolymer:BaTiO3 nanocomposite is presented for achieving lower-voltage electrowetting operation. The composite fluoropolymer film exhibits as much as a 10X increase in measured dielectric constant. Increased surface roughness with BaTiO3 content increased the sessile drop contact angle from θ∼104° to 121° with compositions ranging from 0 to 97 vol. % of BaTiO3 in the fluoropolymer. A larger change in electrowetted contact angle is observed for the 50 vol. % of BaTiO3 nanocomposite (delta theta∼60°) compared to a standard fluoropolymer film of 1 um thickness (delta theta∼30°). Furthermore, required operating voltage for electrowetting decreases by ∼30V for films with high BaTiO3 content. Strong charge storage in the nanocomposite was observed via a new bistable electrowetting effect. For samples with strong charge storage, the droplet remains wetted (>2 minutes) even after removing the applied voltage. Rapid (< 1s) droplet de-wetting could be achieved by briefly applying a reverse polarity voltage to remove the stored charge in the nanocomposite.

Keywords

nanoscaledielectriccomposite
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 949: Symposium C – Smart Dielectric Polymer Properties, Characterization and Their Devices , 2006 , 0949-C05-06
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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References

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