Self assembly using block copolymers enables the formation of nanoscale patterns necessary for future technologies. Herein, we describe the blending of hydrogen bonding polystyrene polymers with polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate and the resulting thin film morphologies. The hydrogen bonding polymer is comprised of a tetra-urea segment at its midpoint, which is capable of forming linear hydrogen bonding arrays. When this polymer was blended with PS-b-PMMA, the tetra-urea polymer was observed to be compatiblized with the PS component of the diblock copolymer. Moreover, highly regular cylindrical or lamellar structures were observed in their thin films. The polymer blends showed unique tunability of domain dimensions which could be useful for block copolymer lithography applications.
By: Ankit Vora, Baoqing Zhao, David To, Joy Cheng, Alshakim Nelson
Published in: RJ10457 in 2009
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