title: Morphology control of three-dimensional nanostructures in porous templates using lamella-forming block copolymers and solvent vapors.
abstract: The microphase separation behavior of block copolymers confined in cylindrical nanopores has been extensively investigated. Recently, the solvent-annealing-induced nanowetting in templates (SAINT) method has been demonstrated to be a versatile approach for the infiltration of block copolymers into the nanopores of porous templates. The function of the annealing solvents, however, is still not well understood, especially in the morphology control of the fabricated block copolymer nanostructures. In this work, we elucidate the function of the annealing solvents in the SAINT method using a lamella-forming block copolymer, polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane (PS-b-PDMS), and anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates. By changing the composition of the annealing solvents, different morphologies such as the concentric lamellar morphology, the winding cylinder morphology, and the irregular hybrid morphology are observed, mainly caused by the annealing-solvent-induced volume change. The morphology of the block copolymer nanostructures can be further confirmed using an HF solution to remove the PDMS domain selectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30010. jtchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Ming-Hsiang
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30010. jtchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Hao-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30010. jtchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Pei-Yun
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30010. jtchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Chun-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30010. jtchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Jiun-Tai
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Chen