Issue 30, 2012
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Phase structural formation and oscillation in polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane thin films

I-Fan Hsieh,a   Hao-Jan Sun,a   Qiang Fu,*b   Bernard Lotz,c   Kevin A. Cavicchid  and  Stephen Z. D. Cheng*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Polymer Science, College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio 44325-3909, USA
E-mail: scheng@uakron.edu

b College of Polymer Science and Engineer, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, Sichuan, China

c Institut Charles Sadron (CNRS-Université de Strasbourg)F-67034, Strasbourg, France

d Department of Polymer Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio 44325-0301, USA

Abstract

The solvent-induced spherical structure in a polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane (PS-b-PDMS) block copolymer was obtained and stabilized by preparing both the bulk and thin films from propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (PGMEA) solutions. The diblock copolymer possessed a total molecular weight of 42 kDa with a PS volume fraction of 72.2%, and it formed a cylindrical phase structure in the equilibrium bulk state. During thermal annealing, only changes in the sphere size and packing rearrangement were found. In contrast, a unique structure evolution route was observed during solvent treatments. Under a controlled vapour of a PS selective solvent, an oscillation of the structural transition between spheres and cylinders was observed in the thin films. The kinetics of this oscillation of structural transition was found to be closely related to the solvent vapour concentration and film thickness. This experiment revealed a unique ordering pathway towards the equilibrium structure in the thin film for this strongly segregated PS-b-PDMS diblock copolymer.

Graphical abstract: Phase structural formation and oscillation in polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane thin films

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2SM25749A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Mar 2012
Accepted
29 May 2012
First published
02 Jul 2012

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 7937-7944

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Phase structural formation and oscillation in polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane thin films

I. Hsieh, H. Sun, Q. Fu, B. Lotz, K. A. Cavicchi and S. Z. D. Cheng, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 7937 DOI: 10.1039/C2SM25749A

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