Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 6: Crystallization, Nucleation and Self Assembly I (joint session CPP/ DY)

DY 6.2: Talk

Monday, March 16, 2015, 09:45–10:00, PC 203

Double-Crystalline Diblock Copolymer Nanostructures by Crystal Thickening — •Robert Schulze, Tobias N. Büttner, and Klaus D. Jandt — Chair of Materials Science (CMS), Otto-Schott-Institute for Materials Research, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Löbdergraben 32, 07743 Jena, Germany

Semi-crystalline diblock copolymers (DBCP) can form defined nano-structures by crystal thickening. In double-crystalline DBCP, both blocks can crystallize and, thus, be used for crystal thickening, which was not investigated, so far.

Here, the hypothesis was tested, that an increase of the lamellar period can be achieved by controlled crystal thickening of both blocks of a linear poly(ethylene)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) DBCP.

In the bulk, we found annealing induced crystal thickening for both blocks using differential scanning calorimetry. Initially crystallized bulk samples were characterized by X-ray scattering and featured a lamellar long-period that corresponded to the extended chain length of the copolymer. Similarly crystallized thin films were characterized by atomic force microscopy and the lamellar long-period was found to be one-half of the extended chain length. Annealing these thin films at elevated temperatures caused crystal thickening and an increase of the lamellar long-period.

The controlled crystal thickening of double-crystalline DBCP can be used to fabricate tailorable nanopatterns which are interesting for applications requiring surface structures with different sizes, as e.g., in photonics or the biomedical field.