Plasma deposition of thermo-responsive thin films from N-vinylcaprolactam

Herein, plasma deposited thermally responsive thin polymer films from N-vinylcaprolactam (NVCL) is reported for the first time by using a low pressure RF plasma process. While FT-IR and XPS analyses highlight the film chemistry, ToF-SIMS combined with MALDI-MS analyses allow to accurately identify different oligomer distributions in the deposited film. The switching behavior of these smart surfaces is confirmed with water contact angle measurements at low and high temperatures, allowing also to estimate the Lower Critical Solution Temperature.