Pathway-Dependent Grain Coarsening of Block Copolymer Patterns under Controlled Solvent Evaporation.

ABSTRACT: Solvent evaporation annealing (SEA) is a straightforward, single-step casting and annealing method of block copolymers (BCP) processing yielding large-grained morphologies in a very short time. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of BCP grain-coarsening in thin films under controlled evaporation of the solvent. Our study is aimed at understanding time and BCP concentration influence on the rate of the lateral growth of BCP grains. By systematically investigating the coarsening kinetics at various BCP concentrations, we observed a steeply decreasing exponential dependence of the kinetics power-law time exponent on polymer concentration. We used this dependence to formulate a mathematical model of BCP ordering under nonstationary conditions and a 2D, time- and concentration-dependent co

SUBMITTER: Leniart AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8772373 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature