High aspect ratio cylindrical microdomains oriented vertically on the substrate using block copolymer micelles and temperature-programmed solvent vapor annealing

Abstract

We report a novel, yet simple, method for the preparation of high aspect ratio cylindrical microdomains oriented vertically on a substrate by using block copolymer micelles and temperature-programmed solvent vapor annealing. Multilayered spherical micelles were first prepared by spin-coating of polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) copolymer (PS-b-P4VP) in toluene solution on a silicon wafer. When temperature-programmed solvent vapor annealing was performed, the spherical micelle cores consisting of P4VP chains were transformed into vertically oriented cylindrical microdomains spanning the entire film thickness up to 550 nm corresponding to the aspect ratio of 15.2. Since nitrogen in the P4VP block could be easily coordinated with many metal precursors, we also fabricated a high density array of gold nanoparticle/polymer nanocomposite nanorods oriented vertically on the substrate.