Thickness-Dependent Order-to-Order Transitions of Bolaform-like Giant Surfactant in Thin Films
- X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States
- Department of Materials Science and Nano Engineering and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Brown School of Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251, United States
Controlling self-assembled nanostructures in thin films allows the bottom-up fabrication of ordered nanoscale patterns. Here we report the unique thickness-dependent phase behavior in thin films of a bolaform-like giant surfactant, which consists of butyl- and hydroxyl-functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (BPOSS and DPOSS) cages telechelically located at the chain ends of a polystyrene (PS) chain with 28 repeating monomers on average. In the bulk, BPOSS-PS28-DPOSS forms a double gyroid (DG) phase. Both grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy techniques are combined to elucidate the thin film structures. Interestingly, films with thicknesses thinner than 200 nm exhibit an irreversible phase transition from hexagonal perforated layer (HPL) to compressed hexagonally packed cylinders (c-HEX) at 130 °C, while films with thickness larger than 200 nm show an irreversible transition from HPL to DG at 200 °C. The thickness-controlled transition pathway suggests possibilities to obtain diverse patterns via thin film self-assembly.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1406116
- Journal Information:
- Macromolecules, Vol. 50, Issue 18; ISSN 0024-9297
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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