Dendritic amphiphiles as additives for honeycomb-like patterned surfaces by breath figures: role of the molecular characteristics on the pore morphology.

The current study presents a library of honeycomb-like patterned surfaces developed from a variety of different water-soluble amphiphilic dendrons. When compared to commercial surfactants, the dendrons produce a wide variety of porous surfaces due to their well-defined branched structure. Different functionalities and generations of dendrons have been studied. A singular hierarchical distribution of the dendrons, forming small nanoparticles (micelles) only at the inner edges of the holes (coffee stain effect) is observed. Once the surfaces are fabricated, these dendrons can be easily recovered via simple aqueous washing. After this treatment, the surfaces exhibit a high hydrophobic character (up to 140°) due to the high porosity. This behavior can be described by the Cassie-Baxter model.