Direct Immersion Annealing of Thin Block Copolymer Films

Journal Article · Wed Sep 09 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b06259· OSTI ID:1354329

Modi, Arvind; Bhaway, Sarang M.; Vogt, Bryan D.; Douglas, Jack F.; Al-Enizi, Abdullah; Elzatahry, Ahmed; Sharma, Ashutosh; Karim, Alamgir

We demonstrate ordering of thin block copolymer (BCP) films via direct immersion annealing (DIA) at enhanced rate leading to stable morphologies. The BCP films are immersed in carefully selected mixtures of good and marginal solvents that can impart enhanced polymer mobility, while inhibiting film dissolution. DIA is compatible with roll-to-roll assembly manufacturing and has distinct advantages over conventional thermal annealing and batch processing solvent-vapor annealing methods. We identify three solvent composition-dependent BCP film ordering regimes in DIA for the weakly interacting polystyrene–poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS–PMMA) system: rapid short-range order, optimal long-range order, and a film instability regime. Kinetic studies in the “optimal long-range order” processing regime as a function of temperature indicate a significant reduction of activation energy for BCP grain growth compared to oven annealing at conventional temperatures. An attractive feature of DIA is its robustness to ordering other BCP (e.g. PS-P2VP) and PS-PMMA systems exhibiting spherical, lamellar and cylindrical ordering.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• OSTI ID: 1354329
• Report Number(s): BNL--112845-2016-JA
• Journal Information: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Journal Issue: 39 Vol. 7; ISSN 1944-8244
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
block copolymer ordering
direct immersion annealing
kinetics
mixed solvents