Gradient Energy Substrates for Self-Organizing Polymer Thin Film Libraries
Abstract
The presence of an interface guides or even significantly alters the self-organizational processes of polymeric thin films. We utilize a two-dimensional combinatorial approach to rapidly map relative polymer-polymer and polymer-substrate interactions in phenomena such as ordering of block-copolymers and blend phase separation. We use a simple method for chemical modification of chlorosilane self-assembled monolayers on an extended test substrate by exposure to a gradient in UV radiation to create stable substrates with a range of contact angles from hydrophilic to hydrophobic (H2O; 5 95 deg., with surface energies from 72 mJ/m2 to 30 mJ/m2). Confinement between the air and substrate interfaces and the preferential wetting of components at the walls determine the in-plane and the surface directed morphologies and their spatial scales. The morphological evolution of PS-b-PMMA block copolymers, and a model LCST blend (PS-PVME) validates known results, and reveals novel phenomenology in systematic trends of interactions in these polymer systems.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002APS..MARJ10007K