Mapping Substrate Surface Field Propagation in Block Polymer Thin Films

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.5b02141
• Publication Date: 2016-01-11T19:59:45Z
• Authors: Cameron K. Shelton; Thomas H. Epps
• Keywords: Polymer substrate

We isolated the key substrate–polymer interactions responsible for propagation of substrate surface field effects in block polymer (BP) thin films through a modified approach to Owens and Wendt interfacial energy formalism. This modification captured influence long-range components on through-film nanostructure orientation BP films, it provides framework manipulating film behavior without need extensive parameter space exploration. Optical microscopy (OM) gradient thickness chlorosilane-modified substrates provided high-throughput identifying critical depth effects. Atomic force (AFM) was combined with OM verify changes free as function thickness. Using model poly(methyl methacrylate-b-n-butyl acrylate) system, we mapped difference found nearly linear increase at low differences followed by onset plateau high differences. Our results connect seemingly disparate trends literature demonstrate more translatable improving via appropriate chemical tailoring surfaces.