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Nanoparticle‐Driven Orientation Transition and Soft‐Shear Alignment in Diblock Copolymer Films via Dynamic Thermal Gradient Field
Author(s) -
Zhang Ren,
Singh Gurpreet,
Dang Alei,
Dai Lu,
Bockstaller Michael R.,
Akgun Bulent,
Satija Sushil,
Karim Alamgir
Publication year - 2013
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.201300485
Subject(s) - materials science , copolymer , elastomer , nanoparticle , colloidal gold , glass transition , nanostructure , composite material , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , polymer , engineering
Sharp dynamic thermal gradient (∇T ≈ 45 °C mm −1 ) field‐driven assembly of cylinder‐forming block copolymer (c‐BCP) films filled with PS‐coated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs; d NP ≈ 3.6 nm, φ NP ≈ 0–0.1) is studied. The influence of increasing AuNP loading fraction on dispersion and assembly of AuNPs within c‐BCP (PS‐PMMA) films is investigated via both static and dynamic thermal gradient fields. With φ NP increasing, a sharp transition from vertical to random in‐plane horizontal cylinder orientation is observed due to enrichment of AuNPs at the substrate side and favorable interaction of PMMA chains with gold cores. Furthermore, a detachable capping elastomer layer can self‐align these random oriented PMMA microdomains into unidirectional hybrid AuNP/c‐BCP nanolines, quantified with an alignment order parameter, S .