Reduction of Domain Spacing and Interfacial Width in Fast Ordering Nanofilled Copolymer Films by Direct Immersion Annealing

Published

November 10, 2016

Author(s)

Melanie Longanecker, Arvind Modi, Andrey Dobrynin, Seyong Kim, Guangcui Yuan, Ronald L. Jones, Sushil K. Satija, Joona Bang, Alamgir Karim

Abstract

Block copolymers (BCPs) offer a convenient templating method on the nanoscale to organize nanoparticles within a polymer film for the enhancement of various properties. For functional applications that require high nanoparticle loadings, this is often more difficult to achieve due to aggregation, reduced kinetics, and disruption of block copolymer order-including the periodic domain spacing, L₀. We find that DIA as a viable method for ordering highly filled (10.5 vol. %) lamellar block copolymer systems, demonstrated using PS-PMMA BCP. The technique alone shows high promise for templating large volumes of nanoparticles, while reducing L₀ by 50% and doubling the amount of templating layers without changing molecular weight or film thickness. Neutron reflection confirms that the templating layered BCP structures are maintained at high loadings and suggests DIA is an effective mechanism to sharpen the interface between BCP domains by 15% in the particle template.

Citation

Macromolecules

Volume

49

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Block Copolymer, Film, Direct Immersion Annealing

Citation

Longanecker, M. , Modi, A. , Dobrynin, A. , Kim, S. , Yuan, G. , Jones, R. , Satija, S. , Bang, J. and Karim, A. (2016), Reduction of Domain Spacing and Interfacial Width in Fast Ordering Nanofilled Copolymer Films by Direct Immersion Annealing, Macromolecules, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=920795 (Accessed October 18, 2025)