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Laser Applications in Polymers

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2022) | Viewed by 5817

Special Issue Editor

Instituto de Química Física Rocasolano, IQFR-CSIC, Serrano 119, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: laser micro- and nanoprocessing of polymers; mechanisms of laser ablation of polymers; laser-induced period surface structures in polymers; polymer thin films; applications of modified polymers; functional polymers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the first laser was described in 1960, one has been able to find in the literature studies on laser interaction with organic and polymer materials. Thus, several laser-based techniques have been developed, to be used as analytical tools, as is the case of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), or as fabrication tools like pulsed laser deposition (PLD), matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) and laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT). Other laser applications employed low fluences so that the polymer surface may be chemically or physically modified or both.

Additionally, laser-based techniques constitute attractive alternatives for the processing of polymers, affording the sought versatility and reliability. Examples are laser-induced periodic surface structuring (LIPSS), laser foaming, and other techniques based on laser ablation, as laser interference lithography (LIL). All these methods can be used to fabricate substrates with a variety of high-precision patterns at different length scales. More recently, specific laser processing techniques, taking advantage of optical trapping or of plasmonic enhancement effects, have been developed and applied to the nanopatterning of soft polymer materials. In general, laser-based techniques can be applied to many different materials in noncontact and flexible set-ups under a great variety of environments. Moreover, the processing can be tuned both to the materials properties and to the desired surface pattern by controlling the laser parameters like intensity, fluence, wavelength, pulse duration, total photon dose, and several other irradiation conditions.

This Special Issue “Laser Applications in Polymers” aims to gather contributions on recent advances about the use of laser techniques in polymer science, concerning analysis, thin film fabrication, surface and bulk modification and, micro- and nanostructuring, and considering both fundamental studies and the potential applications of the modified polymer materials.

Dr. Esther Rebollar
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Laser ablation of polymers
  • Laser-based analytical tools applied to polymers
  • Laser deposition of polymers
  • Laser transfer and printing of polymers
  • Laser modification of polymer surfaces
  • Laser micro- and nanostructuring of polymers
  • Laser polymerization
  • Modeling of laser processing of polymers
  • Polymer funtionalization by laser
  • Applications of polymers modified by laser

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3723 KiB  
Article
Nanostructured Polystyrene Doped with Acetylsalicylic Acid and Its Antibacterial Properties
by Dominik Fajstavr, Klára Neznalová, Nikola Slepičková Kasálková, Silvie Rimpelová, Kateřina Kubičíková, Václav Švorčík and Petr Slepička
Materials 2020, 13(16), 3609; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma13163609 - 14 Aug 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2043
Abstract
Homogeneous polystyrene foils doped with different concentrations of acetylsalicylic acid were prepared by the solvent casting method. The surface morphology and surface chemistry of as-prepared foils were characterized in detail. Excimer laser (krypton fluoride, a wavelength of 248 nm) was used for surface [...] Read more.
Homogeneous polystyrene foils doped with different concentrations of acetylsalicylic acid were prepared by the solvent casting method. The surface morphology and surface chemistry of as-prepared foils were characterized in detail. Excimer laser (krypton fluoride, a wavelength of 248 nm) was used for surface nanopatterning of doped polystyrene foils. Certain combinations of laser fluence and number of laser pulses led to formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) on the exposed surface. Formation of the pattern was affected by the presence of a dopant in the polystyrene structure. Significant differences in surface chemistry and morphology of laser-treated foils compared to both pristine and doped polystyrene were detected. The pattern width and height were both affected by selection of input excimer exposure conditions, and the amount of 6000 pulses was determined as optimal. The possibility of nanostructuring of a honeycomb-like pattern doped with acetylsalicylic acid was also demonstrated. Selected nanostructured surfaces were used for study the antibacterial properties for a model bacteria strain of S. aureus. The combination of altered surface chemistry and morphology of polystyrene was confirmed to have an excellent antibacterial properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laser Applications in Polymers)
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16 pages, 3824 KiB  
Article
Electron Irradiation Effects on Strength and Ductility of Polymer Foils Studied by Femtosecond Laser-Processed Micro-Tensile Specimens
by Manuel J. Pfeifenberger, Gabor Milassin, Anton Hohenwarter, Barbara Putz, Christopher O. A. Semprimoschnig and Reinhard Pippan
Materials 2019, 12(9), 1468; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma12091468 - 07 May 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3120
Abstract
The influence of irradiation on mechanical properties of polymer foils used in spacecraft applications has widely been studied via macroscopic tensile samples. An increase in the local resolution of this investigation can be achieved by reducing the sample’s dimensions. A femtosecond laser enables [...] Read more.
The influence of irradiation on mechanical properties of polymer foils used in spacecraft applications has widely been studied via macroscopic tensile samples. An increase in the local resolution of this investigation can be achieved by reducing the sample’s dimensions. A femtosecond laser enables a fast fabrication of micro-samples with dimensions from tens of μ m to the mm range, with ideally no influence on the material. Tensile experiments using such micro-tensile samples were conducted on FEP, Upilex-S and PET foils. The influence of the laser processing on the polymer foils was evaluated. Additionally an investigation of degradation due to electron irradiation was performed. Furthermore an outlook to extend this technique to depth-resolved measurements by preparing samples from locally thinned foils is presented. The study demonstrates the feasibility of femtosecond laser processing for rapid fabrication of micro-samples, enabling insights into the effect of electron irradiation on local mechanical properties of polymers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laser Applications in Polymers)
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