title: Directed assembly of non-equilibrium ABA triblock copolymer morphologies on nanopatterned substrates.
abstract: The majority of past work on directed assembly of block copolymers on chemically nanopatterned surfaces (or chemical patterns) has focused on AB diblock copolymers, and the resulting morphologies have generally corresponded to equilibrium states. Here we report a study on directed assembly of ABA triblock copolymers. Directed assembly of thin films of symmetric poly(methyl methacrylate-b-styrene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PS-b-PMMA) triblock copolymers is shown to be capable of achieving a high degree of perfection, registration, and accuracy on striped patterns having periods, L(s), commensurate with the bulk period of the copolymer, L(o). When L(s) is incommensurate with L(o), the triblock copolymer domains can reach dimensions up to 55% larger or 13% smaller than L(o). The range over which triblock copolymers tolerate departures from a commensurate L(s) is significantly larger than that accessible with the corresponding diblock copolymer material on analogous directed assembly systems. The assembly kinetics of the triblock copolymer is approximately 3 orders of magnitude slower than observed in the diblock system. Theoretically informed simulations are used to interpret our experimental observations; a thermodynamic analysis reveals that triblocks can form highly ordered, non-equilibrium metastable structures that do not arise in the diblock.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China. sji@ciac.jl.cn
authors.forename: Shengxiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Umang
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nagpal
authors.forename: Guoliang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Sean P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Delcambre
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: de Pablo
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Nealey
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D054802:Molecular Imprinting / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011137:Polystyrenes; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate