Abstract
AbstractA block copolymer (BCP) with specific monomer structures of fluoroacrylate polymers was designed by exploiting the inorganic superhydrophobicity and low glass transition temperature of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). With the use of a fluorine-containing block providing a surface tension as low as that of PDMS (19.9 < $$\gamma$$
γ
< 21.5 mN/m), PDMS-b-poly(2,2,3,3,3-pentafluoropropyl acrylate) (PDMS-b-PPeFPA) copolymer was synthesized to create a volume-symmetric lamellar structure. The compositional randomness of the BCP chains adsorbed onto the substrates provided well-balanced interfacial interactions toward the overlaid PDMS-b-PPeFPA ($$\gamma$$
γ
PDMS-ads ≈ $$\gamma$$
γ
PPeFPA-ads). Under this symmetric confinement with simultaneous dual neutral interfaces, lamellar microdomains with a sub-10 nm half-pitch feature size were successfully oriented perpendicular to the interfaces at room temperature. We showed the response of the BCP films to a lateral electric field, demonstrating that the perpendicular lamellae were adaptively aligned along the electric vector within a short treatment period. Furthermore, the PDMS-b-PPeFPA system exhibited a remarkable etch contrast for O2 reactive ion etching, yielding unidirectionally aligned air–inorganic nanoarrays emanating from the perpendicular lamellae between the electrodes. This study reports a system engineering approach for conceiving highly immiscible, silicon- and fluorine-containing BCP whose components exhibit identical surface tensions ($$\gamma$$
γ
PDMS ≈ $$\gamma$$
γ
PPeFPA) and for generating perpendicularly oriented lamellar microdomains due to substrate neutrality.
Funder
National Research Foundation of Korea
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Condensed Matter Physics,General Materials Science,Modeling and Simulation