TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Daniel A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Beck, Uwe A1 - Lohse, V. A1 - Negendank, D. A1 - Kormunda, M. A1 - Esser, N. T1 - Thin SnOx films for surface plasmon resonance enhanced ellipsometric gas sensing (SPREE) JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology N2 - Background: Gas sensors are very important in several fields like gas monitoring, safety and environmental applications. In this approach, a new gas sensing concept is investigated which combines the powerful adsorption probability of metal oxide conductive sensors (MOS) with an optical ellipsometric readout. This concept Shows promising results to solve the problems of cross sensitivity of the MOS concept. Results: Undoped tin oxide (SnOx) and iron doped tin oxide (Fe:SnOx) thin add-on films were prepared by magnetron sputtering on the top of the actual surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing gold layer. The films were tested for their sensitivity to several gas species in the surface plasmon resonance enhanced (SPREE) gas measurement. It was found that the undoped tin oxide (SnOx) shows higher sensitivities to propane (C3H8) then to carbon monoxide (CO). By using Fe:SnOx, this relation is inverted. This behavior was explained by a change of the amount of binding sites for CO in the layer due to this iron doping. For hydrogen (H2) no such relation was found but the sensing ability was identical for both layer materials. This observation was related to a different sensing mechanism for H2 which is driven by the Diffusion into the layer instead of adsorption on the surface. Conclusion: The gas sensing selectivity can be enhanced by tuning the properties of the thin film overcoating. A relation of the binding sites in the doped and undoped SnOx films and the gas sensing abilities for CO and C3H8 was found. This could open the path for optimized gas sensing devices with different coated SPREE sensors. KW - Doped tin oxide KW - Ellipsometry KW - Gas sensing KW - Surface plasmon KW - Resonance KW - Thin films KW - Transparent conductive oxides PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.8.56 SN - 2190-4286 VL - 8 SP - 522 EP - 529 AN - OPUS4-39391 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Madkour, Sherif A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina A1 - Heídari, M. A1 - von Klitzing, R. A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - Unveiling the dynamics of self-assembled layers of thin films of poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) by nanosized relaxation spectroscopy JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces N2 - A combination of nanosized dielectric relaxation (BDS) and thermal spectroscopy (SHS) was utilized to characterize the dynamics of thin films of Poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) (thicknesses: 7 nm – 160 nm). For the BDS measurements, a recently designed nano-structured electrode system is employed. A thin film is spin-coated on an ultra-flat highly conductive silicon wafer serving as the bottom electrode. As top electrode, a highly conductive wafer with non-conducting nanostructured SiO2 nano-spacers with heights of 35 nm or 70 nm is assembled on the bottom electrode. This procedure results in thin supported films with a free polymer/air interface. The BDS measurements show two relaxation processes, which are analyzed unambiguously for thicknesses smaller than 50 nm. The relaxation rates of both processes have different temperature dependencies. One process coincidences in its position and temperature dependence with the glassy dynamics of bulk PVME and is ascribed to the dynamic glass transition of a bulk-like layer in the middle of the film. The relaxation rates were found to be thickness independent as confirmed by SHS. Unexpectedly, the relaxation rates of the second process obey an Arrhenius-like temperature dependence. This process was not observed by SHS and was related to the constrained fluctuations in a layer, which is irreversibly adsorbed at the substrate with a heterogeneous structure. Its molecular fluctuations undergo a confinement effect resulting in the localization of the segmental dynamics. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the molecular dynamics of an adsorbed layer in thin films. KW - Broadband dielectric spectroscopy KW - AC-nanochip calorimetry KW - Nanostructured capacitors KW - Thin films PY - 2017 UR - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsami.6b14404 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b14404 SN - 1944-8244 VL - 9 IS - 8 SP - 7535 EP - 7546 PB - ACS Publications CY - Washington DC AN - OPUS4-39291 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Madkour, Sherif A1 - Szymoniak, Paulina A1 - Schönhals, Andreas T1 - In-situ probing of the dynamics of irreversibly adsorbed layers in PVME thin films N2 - For many years now, the so-called three layer model (free-surface, bulk-like, and adsorbed layers) has been commonly used, along with other parameters, to explain the deviations seen in glass transition and glassy dynamics for polymers confined into thin films, compared to their bulk value. Nevertheless, due to the hard accessibility of the adsorbed layers in supported films, little is known about the nature of their dynamics and how they really influences the overall dynamics of the thin films. Here, the irreversibly self-assembled adsorbed layer of a low MW Poly (vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) is solvent-leached from a 200 nm film. The thickness and topography of this layer is checked with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), to insure no dewetting and low roughness. Further, the dynamics of the adsorbed layer is then in-situ probed with Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS). A recently developed nano-structured capacitor arrangement was employed; where a silicon wafer with nanostructured SiO2 nano-spacers, with heights of 35 nm, is placed on top of a thin film spin coated on an ultra-flat highly conductive silicon wafer. All results will be discussed in detail and quantitatively compared to our recent work on the glassy dynamics of PVME thin films (50 nm- 7nm), where BDS measurements showed two thickness-independent relaxation processes. The first process was assigned to the -relaxation of a bulk-like layer. Whereas the second process showed a different temperature dependence and was ascribed to the relaxation of polymer segments adsorbed at the substrate. To our knowledge, this is the first in-situ study of the dynamics of an irreversibly adsorbed layer. T2 - 8th International Discussion Meeting Relaxation in Complex Systems CY - Wisla, Poland DA - 23.07.2017 KW - Thin films PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-41190 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -