Self-assembly of a silicon-containing side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymer in bulk and in thin films: kinetic pathway of a cylinder to sphere transition
Citation
Liao, F.; Shi, L.-Y.; Cheng, L.-C.; Lee, S.; Ran, R.; Yager, K.G.; Ross, C.A. "Self-assembly of a silicon-containing side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymer in bulk and in thin films: kinetic pathway of a cylinder to sphere transition"
Nanoscale 2019,
11 285–293.
doi: 10.1039/C8NR07685ESummary
GISAXS is used to study the ordering and reordering of a silicon-containing liquid crystalline block copolymer.
Abstract
The self-assembly of a high-chi silicon-containing side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymer (LC BCP) in bulk and in thin films is reported, and the structural transition process from the hexagonally packed cylinder (HEX) to the body-centered cubic structure (BCC) in thin films was examined by both reciprocal and real space experimental methods. The block copolymer, poly(dimethylsiloxane-b-11-(4'-cyanobiphenyl-4-yloxy)undecylmethacrylate) (PDMS-b-P(4CNB11C)MA) with a molecular weight of 19.5 kg mol^-1 and a volume fraction of PDMS 27% self-assembled in bulk into a hierarchical nanostructure of sub-20 nm HEX cylinders of PDMS with the P(4CNB11C)MA block exhibiting a smectic LC phase with a 1.61 nm period. The structure remained HEX as the P(4CNB11C)MA block transformed to an isotropic phase at ~120 °C. In the thin films, the PDMS cylindrical microdomains were oriented in layers parallel to the substrate surface. The LC block formed a smectic LC phase which transformed to an isotropic phase at ~120 °C, and the microphase-separated nanostructure transformed from HEX to BCC spheres at ~160 °C. The hierarchical structure as well as the dynamic structural transition of the thin films were characterized using in situ grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering. The transient morphologies from the HEX to BCC structure in thin films were captured by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, and the transition pathway was described.
