On the self-assembly of brush block copolymers in thin films.

We describe a simple route to fabricate two dimensionally well-ordered, periodic nanopatterns using the self-assembly of brush block copolymers (brush BCPs). Well-developed lamellar microdomains oriented perpendicular to the substrate are achieved, without modification of the underlying substrates, and structures with feature sizes greater than 200 nm are generated due to the reduced degree of chain entanglements of brush BCPs. A near-perfect linear scaling law was found for the period, L, as a function of backbone degree of polymerization (DP) for two series of brush BCPs.

Self-assembly of symmetric brush diblock copolymers.

Self-assembled structures of brush block copolymers (BrBCPs) with polylactide (PLA) and polystyrene (PS) side chains were studied. The polynorbornene-backbone-based BrBCPs containing approximately equal volume fractions of each block self-assembled into highly ordered lamellae with domain spacing ranging from 20 to 240 nm by varying molecular weight of the backbone in the bulk state, as revealed by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The domain size increased approximately linearly with backbone length, which indicated an extended conformation of the backbone in the ordered state.