Abstract
Formation of a cylindrical microphase-separated structure (∼20 nm periodicity) of a liquid crystalline block copolymer comprising poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(methacrylate) (PMA) bearing azobenzene (Az) mesogens in the side chains was investigated by in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM). The amphiphilic liquid crystalline block copolymer, PEO-b-PMA(Az), forms normally oriented PEO cylinders over the entire film by thermal annealing of various substrates without any pretreatment. Grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) analysis with the simple compensation method of X-ray refraction effect confirmed an order–order transition from a ⟨110⟩-oriented bcc-sphere structure to normally oriented hex-cylinder structure, which is simultaneous liquid crystallization in a cooling process. The growth of cylindrical microphase separation grains in the liquid-crystallization-induced OOT was successfully visualized in the film surface by temperature-controlled AFM. The microphase-separated grains w...
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