High performance polymers are required for the increasing demand for nanofabrication in industry. For example, lubricants are used in extreme conditions nowadays, i.e., space and miniature surfaces such as those in electronic components. Also, lithography of nanoscale features requires polymers to be able to maintain a thin structure over small scales. Homopolymers are reaching their limits in strength and stability and we propose hybridizing these polymers with nanoparticles to enhance their mechanical properties. Our research may make it possible to create more efficient space machinery and satellites, faster and smaller computer chips, and enhance a wide variety of potential commercial applications.

Dewetting is a major problem for industrial lubricants since it renders them ineffective at reducing friction, often causing machines to malfunction. Nanoparticles, such as various cloisite and artifical clays, POSS, silica, and carbon black, might be able to stabilize lubricants and prevent such a problem. To test this hypothesis, we measured the contact angle of droplets of the various silicone oil-nanoparticle solutions and deduced the interfacial energy between the lubricant and hydrophobic silicon substrate. Using the formula in Figure 1 [not shown here], we proved quantatively that the cloisite and artificial clays reduced the interfacial energy the greatest, thereby reducing the rate of dewetting.

Similarly, regarding nanolithography, polymers' stability is vital to the manufacturing of smaller and faster computer circuitry. Current polymers are inable to maintain their nanoscaled features and therefore melt and reduce their accuracy for printing chips. In our study, to we used silicon stamps made of nanopatterned aluminum to simulate the polymer mask used in the process and to make a negative imprint on silicon wafers spuncast with PMMA and PS with and without gold nanoparticles. We then ran our samples on the atomic force microscope in Tg mode to observe the glass transition temperatures of our polymer solutions and to see if nanoparticles successfully raised the glass transition temperature, making the polymer more stable at such minute thicknesses.