Vertical Cylinder-to-Lamella Transition in Thin Block Copolymer Films Induced by In-Plane Electric Field

Morphological transition between hexagonal and lamellar patterns in thin polystyrene–<i>block</i>–poly(4-vinyl pyridine) films simultaneously exposed to a strong in-plane electric field and saturated solvent vapor is studied with atomic force and scanning electron microscopy. In these co...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alexey S. Merekalov, Yaroslav I. Derikov, Vladimir V. Artemov, Alexander A. Ezhov, Yaroslav V. Kudryavtsev
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/870855a4a8e74dc5b723c0efe4f127fe
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Morphological transition between hexagonal and lamellar patterns in thin polystyrene–<i>block</i>–poly(4-vinyl pyridine) films simultaneously exposed to a strong in-plane electric field and saturated solvent vapor is studied with atomic force and scanning electron microscopy. In these conditions, standing cylinders made of 4-vinyl pyridine blocks arrange into threads up to tens of microns long along the field direction and then partially merge into standing lamellas. In the course of rearrangement, the copolymer remains strongly segregated, with the minor component domains keeping connectivity between the film surfaces. The ordering tendency becomes more pronounced if the cylinders are doped with Au nanorods, which can increase their dielectric permittivity. Non-selective chloroform vapor works particularly well, though it causes partial etching of the indium tin oxide cathode. On the contrary, 1,4-dioxane vapor selective to polystyrene matrix does not allow for any morphological changes.