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Development of Nanodomain and Fractal Morphologies in Solvent Annealed Block Copolymer Thin Films
Author(s) -
Peng Juan,
Han Yanchun,
Knoll Wolfgang,
Kim Dong Ha
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200700206
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , microscale chemistry , polystyrene , ethylene oxide , solvent , annealing (glass) , thin film , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , fractal , poly ethylene , polymer , nanotechnology , ethylene , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , mathematical analysis , mathematics education , mathematics , engineering
Abstract We have systematically studied the thin film morphologies of asymmetric polystyrene‐ block ‐poly(ethylene oxide) (PS‐ b ‐PEO) diblock copolymer subjected to solvent vapors of varying selectivity for the constituent blocks. Upon a short treatment in neutral or PS‐selective vapor, the film exhibited a highly ordered array of hexagonally packed, cylindrical microdomains. In the case of PEO selective vapor annealing, such ordered cylindrical microdomains were not obtained. Instead, fractal patterns on the microscale were observed and their growth processes investigated. Furthermore, hierarchical structures could be obtained if the fractal pattern was exposed to neutral or PS selective vapor.