Controlled and Tunable Fabrication of Polymer Thin Films

A method of forming a conformal polymer thin film on a conductive substrate, the method comprising:

• dissolving a polymer in an electrolytic solution to form a deposition solution, the polymer including a non-conductive backbone and plural electrochemically active crosslinker groups covalently attached to the non-conductive backbone;
• immersing the conductive substrate in the deposition solution;
• and
• applying an electrochemical potential to the conductive substrate to induce electrochemical activation of the crosslinker groups at a surface of the conductive substrate, the electrochemical activation of the crosslinker groups resulting in surface-confined crosslinking and self-limiting deposition of the polymer to form the conformal polymer thin film on the surfaces of the conductive substrate.

A method of electrodepositing a polymeric thin film with tunable properties on a conductive substrate, the method comprising:

• dissolving a polymer in an electrolytic solution to form a deposition solution, the polymer including a non-conductive backbone and plural electrochemically active crosslinker groups covalently attached to the non-conductive backbone;
• immersing the conductive substrate in the deposition solution;
• applying an electrochemical potential to the conductive substrate to induce electrochemical crosslinking and deposition of the polymer as the conformal polymeric thin film;
• and
• controlling one or more deposition parameters to tune the tunable properties of the polymeric thin film.