Directed assembly of cylinder-forming block copolymer films and thermochemically induced cylinder to sphere transition: a hierarchical route to linear arrays of nanodots.

La, Young-Hye; Edwards, Erik W; Park, Sang-Min; Nealey, Paul F · Nano Lett · 2005

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

A morphological transition from cylinders to spheres was induced in an asymmetric diblock copolymer, poly(styrene)-block-poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PS-b-PtBA). The periodic arrays of the poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PtBA) domains were transformed to the ordered poly(acrylic anhydride) (PAA) spheres via the thermal deprotection of tert-butyl acrylate linkages and the subsequent volume change of the minority block. Coupled with techniques to direct the assembly of cylinder-forming block copolymers, this finding provides new routes to fabricate ordered geometries of nanodot arrays.

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