The surface pattern formation on a gelation surface is analyzed using an effective surface roughness. The spontaneous surface deformation on DiMethylAcrylAmide (DMAA) gelation surface is controlled by temperature, initiator concentration, and ambient
oxygen. The effective surface roughness is defined using 2-dimensional photo data to characterize the surface deformation. Parameter dependence of the effective surface roughness is systematically investigated. We find that decrease of ambient oxygen, increase of initiator concentration, and high temperature tend to suppress the surface deformation in almost similar manner. That trend allows us to collapse all the data to a unified master curve. As a result, we finally obtain an empirical scaling form of the effective surface roughness. This scaling is useful to control the degree of surface patterning. However, the actual dynamics of this pattern formation is not still uncovered.
We report the controllability of a gelation surface pattern formation. Recently, we have found and studied a novel kind of pattern formation that occurs during a radical polymerization (gelation) process. The pattern formation is observed in an open
top boundary of quasi two dimensional gelation. In previous studies, we have used two dimensional photo based image processing to analyze the patterns. However, the actual pattern is a three dimensional surface deformation. Thus we develop a three dimensional measurement system using a line laser displacement sensor and an automatic x-stage. Patterns measured by the system are analyzed and discussed by means of pattern controllability. In particular, we focus on the possibility of the pattern control using an external temperature field. As a result, we reveal that the global structure can be controlled, whereas the characteristic length scales (wavelength and amplitude) are not controllable.
