Novel adamantane-based periodic mesoporous organosilica film with ultralow dielectric constant and high mechanical strength

In this work, a novel bridged organosilane precursor, adamantane-bridged organosilane (ADBO), was synthesized successfully which was employed to prepare adamantane-based (ADH-based) periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) thin film in the presence of porogen and acid catalyst via evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) after spin-coating procedure. The resultant ADH-based PMO thin films were characterized by FTIR, NMR, TEM, and small-angle XRD. The ADH-based PMO thin film with weight ratio of porogen to ADBO (0.75:1) possesses low dielectric constant (1.55 ± 0.04@1 MHz), excellent Young’s modulus (6.69 ± 0.54 GPa), and ideal hydrophobic property (90.2° of water contact angle) simultaneously. These outstanding properties of ADH-based PMO film can be ascribed to lower polarity, lower density, and rigid cavity structure of adamantane, which suggests its potential application as high-performance low-κ material in next-generation microelectronics.