Diblock copolymer adsorption onto a solid surface as revealed by evanescent wave ellipsometry
- Exxon Research and Engineering Co., Annandale, NJ (United States)
- IBM Research Division, San Jose, CA (United States). Almaden Research Center
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States). Center for Advanced Materials Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
The interfacial behavior of diblock copolymers play an important role in many practical applications, for example, polymer compatibilization, adhesion, and colloid stabilization. There has been considerable theoretical and experimental effort to understand the adsorption behavior of diblock copolymers from a solution onto a solid surface. Recent neutron reflectivity measurements on solutions of symmetric diblock copolymers of polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate), denoted P(S-b-MMA), near a quartz wall have shown that the PMMA segments adsorb preferentially onto the quartz forming a dense layer. However, the segmental concentration of polystyrene (PS) was too low to be observable. Evanescent wave ellipsometry, EWE, on the other hand, allows one to determine the density of molecules adsorbed onto a surface without labeling the segments with deuterium. Here, EWE results on P(S-b-MMA) adsorbed onto a solid substrate are presented as a function of molecular weight. It is shown that the adsorbed amount of copolymer is maximized for a particular molecular weight. This result contradicts theoretical predictions, and a possible origin of this discrepancy is provided.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 6585984
- Journal Information:
- Macromolecules; (United States), Vol. 27:25; ISSN 0024-9297
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Capillary wave studies of polystyrene-b-poly(methacrylic acid) diblock copolymer films at the air-water interface
Porous Diblock Copolymer Thin Films in High-Performance Semiconductor Microelectronics