Ordered Morphologies on the Binary Blend of Diblock Copolymers Film Induced by Nanoparticles

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the ordered morphologies on the binary blend of diblock copolymers film induced by the mobile wettable nanoparticles on the substrate. The film forms highly ordered microphase and macrophase morphologies. We constructed the phase diagram, which suggests that the ordered-striped macrophase structures are due to the competition equilibrium of the wetting strength and the chemical potential amplitude upon the nanoparticles. The morphologies of the binary blend film form the striped pattern of different periods with the changing oscillation period of the chemical potential. The short-range interaction between monomers only alters the microphase structures. We analyzed the variation in the interfacial energy, the wetting energy and the particles/substrate’s coupling energy on different morphologies. The results provide a new control mechanism to stabilize the ordered microphase and macrophase structures within the copolymer blend film.