Kinetics of field-induced surface patterns on PMMA

A simple model was developed to analyze the growth of a liquid pillar under the action of an electric field between two parallel electrodes. A quadratic relationship between time and the diameter of the pillar was obtained. The diameter of the pillar increases with time. Large electric field assists the growth of the liquid pillar, while a liquid with a large viscosity hinders the growth of the liquid pillar. The fieldinduced formation and growth of PMMA pillars on PMMA films were observed using the configuration of a parallel capacitor. Pillars of larger sizes and smaller densities were formed on thicker PMMA films than on thinner PMMA films. The root-mean-square (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root- mean-square) diameter of the pillars increases with the increase of the annealing time and annealing temperature. The growth behavior of the pillars can be described by an Arrhenius relation with an activation energy of 24.4 kJ/mol, suggesting that the growth of the pillars is controlled by a thermal activation process.