Polymers on Nanoperiodic, Heterogeneous Surfaces

Abstract

Herein we establish a relationship between controlled nanoscale surface interactions and subsequent macromolecular ordering. Striped surfaces of oxide and metal are generated over large areas, where the stripe width is comparable to the size of a polymer molecule. Homopolymers are found to anisotropically dewet such surfaces, while incompatible polymer mixtures phase separate at the substrate/polymer interface on a molecular level. An orientation of lamellar block copolymer microdomains normal to the surface is found, when substrate and polymer length scales are commensurate.