Tailoring Spontaneous Pillar Structure Using Phase-Separating Organosiloxane Sol-Gel Systems in Micro-Fabricated Grooves

A sharp transition to pillar structure has been observed in simple sol-gel systems accompanying phase separation inside rectangular-sectioned open grooves which were fabricated on a silica glass chip. The structural variation was investigated using two contrastive systems; one with a rapid sol-gel reaction and the other with a sluggish reaction. In the slower system, transition from web-like bicontinuous structure to pillar structure, we call it as “web-to-pillar transition”, occurred when the bulk characteristic length Λm exceeded the width of the groove D. On the other hand, the transition did not occur in the same condition in the faster system; it occurred when Λm became much longer than D. A consistent formation mechanism model was also proposed using a relation between interfacial curvatures and pressure.