Ring-Opening-Induced Toughening of a Low-Permittivity Polymer-Metal Interface

Singh, B and Garg, S and Rathore, J and Moore, R and Ravishankar, N and Interrante, L and Ramanath, Ganpati (2010) Ring-Opening-Induced Toughening of a Low-Permittivity Polymer-Metal Interface. In: Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2 (5). pp. 1275-1280.

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Abstract

Integrating low dielectric permittivity (low-k) polymers to metals is an exacting fundamental challenge because poor bonding between low-polarizability moieties and metals precludes good interfacial adhesion. Conventional adhesion-enhancing methods such as using intermediary layers are unsuitable for engineering polymer/metal interfaces for many applications because of the collateral increase in dielectric permittivity. Here, we demonstrate a completely new approach without surface treatments or intermediary layers to obtain an excellent interfacial fracture toughness of > 13 J/m(2) in a model system comprising copper. and a cross-linked polycarbosilane with k similar to 2.7 obtained by curing a cyclolinear polycarbosilane in air.Our results suggest that interfacial oxygen catalyzed molecularring-opening and anchoring of the opened ring moieties of the polymer to copper is the main toughening mechanism. This novel approach of realizing adherent low-k polymer/metal structures without intermediary layers by activating metal-anchoring polymer moieties at the interface could be adapted for applications such as device wiring and packaging, and laminates and composites.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Chemical Society.
Keywords:	low k;polymer;interface toughening;ring-opening; carbosilane;copper
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Materials Research Centre
Date Deposited:	14 Jun 2010 07:28
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 06:08
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/28372

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