Direct Immersion Annealing of Thin Block Copolymer Films

Arvind Modi; Sarang M. Bhaway; Bryan D. Vogt; Jack F. Douglas; Abdullah Al-Enizi; Ahmed Elzatahry; Ashutosh Sharma; Alamgir Karim

doi:10.1021/acsami.5b06259

Direct Immersion Annealing of Thin Block Copolymer Films

Arvind Modi, Sarang M. Bhaway, Bryan D. Vogt, Jack F. Douglas, Abdullah Al-Enizi, Ahmed Elzatahry, Ashutosh Sharma, Alamgir Karim

Chemical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

We demonstrate ordering of thin block copolymer (BCP) films via direct immersion annealing (DIA) at enhanced rate leading to stable morphologies. The BCP films are immersed in carefully selected mixtures of good and marginal solvents that can impart enhanced polymer mobility, while inhibiting film dissolution. DIA is compatible with roll-to-roll assembly manufacturing and has distinct advantages over conventional thermal annealing and batch processing solvent-vapor annealing methods. We identify three solvent composition-dependent BCP film ordering regimes in DIA for the weakly interacting polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) system: rapid short-range order, optimal long-range order, and a film instability regime. Kinetic studies in the optimal long-range order processing regime as a function of temperature indicate a significant reduction of activation energy for BCP grain growth compared to oven annealing at conventional temperatures. An attractive feature of DIA is its robustness to ordering other BCP (e.g. PS-P2VP) and PS-PMMA systems exhibiting spherical, lamellar and cylindrical ordering.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	21639-21645
Number of pages	7
Journal	ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume	7
Issue number	39
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b06259
State	Published - Oct 7 2015

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Materials Science

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title = "Direct Immersion Annealing of Thin Block Copolymer Films",

abstract = "We demonstrate ordering of thin block copolymer (BCP) films via direct immersion annealing (DIA) at enhanced rate leading to stable morphologies. The BCP films are immersed in carefully selected mixtures of good and marginal solvents that can impart enhanced polymer mobility, while inhibiting film dissolution. DIA is compatible with roll-to-roll assembly manufacturing and has distinct advantages over conventional thermal annealing and batch processing solvent-vapor annealing methods. We identify three solvent composition-dependent BCP film ordering regimes in DIA for the weakly interacting polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) system: rapid short-range order, optimal long-range order, and a film instability regime. Kinetic studies in the optimal long-range order processing regime as a function of temperature indicate a significant reduction of activation energy for BCP grain growth compared to oven annealing at conventional temperatures. An attractive feature of DIA is its robustness to ordering other BCP (e.g. PS-P2VP) and PS-PMMA systems exhibiting spherical, lamellar and cylindrical ordering.",

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AU - Modi, Arvind

AU - Bhaway, Sarang M.

AU - Vogt, Bryan D.

AU - Douglas, Jack F.

AU - Al-Enizi, Abdullah

AU - Elzatahry, Ahmed

AU - Sharma, Ashutosh

AU - Karim, Alamgir

PY - 2015/10/7

Y1 - 2015/10/7

N2 - We demonstrate ordering of thin block copolymer (BCP) films via direct immersion annealing (DIA) at enhanced rate leading to stable morphologies. The BCP films are immersed in carefully selected mixtures of good and marginal solvents that can impart enhanced polymer mobility, while inhibiting film dissolution. DIA is compatible with roll-to-roll assembly manufacturing and has distinct advantages over conventional thermal annealing and batch processing solvent-vapor annealing methods. We identify three solvent composition-dependent BCP film ordering regimes in DIA for the weakly interacting polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) system: rapid short-range order, optimal long-range order, and a film instability regime. Kinetic studies in the optimal long-range order processing regime as a function of temperature indicate a significant reduction of activation energy for BCP grain growth compared to oven annealing at conventional temperatures. An attractive feature of DIA is its robustness to ordering other BCP (e.g. PS-P2VP) and PS-PMMA systems exhibiting spherical, lamellar and cylindrical ordering.

AB - We demonstrate ordering of thin block copolymer (BCP) films via direct immersion annealing (DIA) at enhanced rate leading to stable morphologies. The BCP films are immersed in carefully selected mixtures of good and marginal solvents that can impart enhanced polymer mobility, while inhibiting film dissolution. DIA is compatible with roll-to-roll assembly manufacturing and has distinct advantages over conventional thermal annealing and batch processing solvent-vapor annealing methods. We identify three solvent composition-dependent BCP film ordering regimes in DIA for the weakly interacting polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) system: rapid short-range order, optimal long-range order, and a film instability regime. Kinetic studies in the optimal long-range order processing regime as a function of temperature indicate a significant reduction of activation energy for BCP grain growth compared to oven annealing at conventional temperatures. An attractive feature of DIA is its robustness to ordering other BCP (e.g. PS-P2VP) and PS-PMMA systems exhibiting spherical, lamellar and cylindrical ordering.

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Direct Immersion Annealing of Thin Block Copolymer Films

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