Fluorocarbon-organosilicon copolymers and coatings prepared by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition

A method of forming a multilayer copolymer in film on a surface of a structure, comprising the sequential steps of:

• a) exposing a monomer gas to a source of heat having a temperature sufficient to pyrolyze the monomer gas, the monomer gas selected to produce upon pyrolysis a source of reactive species that selectively promotes polymerization, the reactive species being in the vicinity of a structure surface on which a polymer thin film is to be formed;
• and maintaining the structure surface at a substantially lower temperature than that of the heat source to induce deposition and polymerization of the reactive species on the structure surface;
• b) exposing at least two monomer gasses selected independently from the group consisting of organosilicons and halocarbons to a source of heat having a temperature sufficient to pyrolyze the monomer gasses, the monomer gasses selected to produce upon pyrolysis sources of reactive species that include polymerizable species and that selectively promote copolymerization, the reactive species sources being in the vicinity of the coated structure surface from step a) on which a copolymer thin film is to be formed;
• and maintaining the coated structure surface from step a) at a substantially lower temperature than that of the heat source to induce deposition and polymerization of the reactive species on the coated structure surface;
• wherein halocarbons are selected from the group consisting of hexafluoropropylene oxide, tetrafluoroethylene, hexafluorocyclopropane, octafluorocyclobutane, perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride, octafluoropropane, trifluoromethane, difluoromethane, difluorodichloromethane, difluorodibromomethane, difluorobromomethane, difluorochloromethane, trifluorochloromethane, tetrafluorocyclonronane, tetrachlorodifluorocyclopropane, trichlorotrifluoroethane, and dichlorotetrafluorocyclopropane;
• and
• c) exposing a monomer gas to a source of heat having a temperature sufficient to pyrolyze the monomer gas, the monomer gas selected to produce upon pyrolysis a source of reactive species that selectively promotes polymerization, the reactive species being in the vicinity of the coated structure surface from step b) on which a polymer thin film is to be formed;
• and maintaining the coated structure surface from step b) at a substantially lower temperature than that of the heat source to induce deposition and polymerization of the reactive species on the coated structure surface.