Self-organization in dry photopolymerized acrylate films : 2. General experimental description

Viscous acrylate mixtures containing a photoinitiator, deposited as a film on a glass plate, after UV irradiation, show well-organized structures. These structures are observed for films irradiated through a lined mask; the formation of wavy relief on the free surface with the same frequency as that of the mask is obtained. Attention is also focused on the sensitivity of these phenomena to adsorption. For films irradiated over the whole surface and for specific compositions, self-organized structures in the form of waves or even hexagonal cells are observed. This generalizes the previous thermodynamic analysis (Part 1).