Thickness-dependence of block copolymer coarsening kinetics

Black, Charles T.; Forrey, Christopher; Yager, Kevin G.

doi:10.1039/C7SM00212B

Title: Thickness-dependence of block copolymer coarsening kinetics

Journal Article · Fri Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Soft Matter

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM00212B· OSTI ID:1372447

Black, Charles T. ^[1]; Forrey, Christopher ^[2];

^[1]

Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials
US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA)., Silver Spring, MD (United States). Center for Devices and Radiological Health

In spite of active research, many fundamental aspects of block copolymer ordering remain unresolved. We studied the thickness-dependence of block copolymer grain coarsening kinetics, and find that thinner films order more rapidly than thicker films. Bilayer films, or monolayers with partial layers of islands, order more slowly than monolayers because of the greater amount of material that must rearrange in a coordinated fashion. Sub-monolayer films order much more rapidly than monolayers, exhibiting considerably smaller activation energies, as well as larger exponents for the time-growth power-law. Furthermore, by using molecular dynamics simulations, we directly study the motion of defects in these film regimes. Here, we attribute the enhanced grain growth in sub-monolayers to the film boundaries, where defects can be spontaneously eliminated. The boundaries thus act as efficient sinks for morphological defects, pointing towards methods for engineering rapid ordering of self-assembling thin films.

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC00112704

OSTI ID:: 1372447

Report Number(s):: BNL-114045-2017-JA; SMOABF; KC0403020

Journal Information:: Soft Matter, Vol. 13, Issue 18; ISSN 1744-683X

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 28 works

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