Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 19: Poster: Interfaces and Thin Films

CPP 19.3: Poster

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 18:00–20:00, P2

Control of Lamella Orientation in Confined Block Copolymer Films — •Vanessa Weith, Alexei Krekhov, and Walter Zimmermann — Theoretische Physik I, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

The study of phase separation in polymer blends offers substantial opportunities to control the morphology of the evolving patterns. This is of considerable fundamental and technological importance in order to develop new materials to achieve specific properties. New strategies to control the long-range order in the nanostructures formed by microphase separation in block copolymers can be developed with the help of recently found thickness-dependent lamella orientation in diblock copolymer films [1].

We have studied this issue using a mean-field approach. Investigating the existence, stability and free energy of lamellar solutions in infinite and confined geometries in one spatial dimension, the results agree with those of other models based on self-consistent field theory [2] or free energy [3]. Extending the analysis to two spatial dimensions helps to determine which orientation of the lamella is selected depending on the input parameters. Furthermore the dynamics of the spatio-temporal behavior of the phase separation process is characterized.

[1] V. Olszowka, L. Tsarkova, and A. Böker, Soft Matter 5, 812 (2009)

[2] M. W. Matsen, J. Chem. Phys. 106, 7781 (1997)

[3] D. G. Walton, G. J. Kellog, and A. M. Mayes, Macromolecules 27, 6225 (1994)