Direct Immersion Annealing of Thin Block Copolymer Films.
We demonstrate ordering of thin block copolymer (BCP) films via direct immersion annealing (DIA) at enhanced rate leading to stable morphologies. The BCP films are immersed in carefully selected mixtures of good and marginal solvents that can impart enhanced polymer mobility, while inhibiting film dissolution. DIA is compatible with roll-to-roll assembly manufacturing and has distinct advantages over conventional thermal annealing and batch processing solvent-vapor annealing methods. We identify three solvent composition-dependent BCP film ordering regimes in DIA for the weakly interacting polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) system: rapid short-range order, optimal long-range order, and a film instability regime. Kinetic studies in the "optimal long-range order" processing regime as a function of temperature indicate a significant reduction of activation energy for BCP grain growth compared to oven annealing at conventional temperatures. An attractive feature of DIA is its robustness to ordering other BCP (e.g. PS-P2VP) and PS-PMMA systems exhibiting spherical, lamellar and cylindrical ordering.
Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron , Akron, Ohio 44325, United States.
Arvind
A
Modi
Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron , Akron, Ohio 44325, United States.
Sarang M
SM
Bhaway
Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron , Akron, Ohio 44325, United States.
Bryan D
BD
Vogt
Materials Science and Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, United States.
Jack F
JF
Douglas
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Saud University , Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah
A
Al-Enizi
Materials Science and Technology Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University , PO Box 2713 , Doha, Qatar.
Ahmed
A
Elzatahry
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur , Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.
Ashutosh
A
Sharma
Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron , Akron, Ohio 44325, United States.
Alamgir
A
Karim
block copolymer ordering; direct immersion annealing; kinetics; mixed solvents