Optical Imaging of Large Gyroid Grains in Block Copolymer Templates by Confined Crystallization.

ABSTRACT: Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly is a promising route to manufacture functional nanomaterials for applications from nanolithography to optical metamaterials. Self-assembled cubic morphologies cannot, however, be conveniently optically characterized in the lab due to their structural isotropy. Here, the aligned crystallization behavior of a semicrystalline-amorphous polyisoprene-b-polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (ISO) triblock terpolymer was utilized to visualize the grain structure of the cubic microphase-separated morphology. Upon quenching from a solvent swollen state, ISO first self-assembles into an alternating gyroid morphology, in the confinement of which the PEO crystallizes preferentially along the least tortuous pathways of the single gyroid morphology with gra

SUBMITTER: Dehmel R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5594442 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature