Abstract
Solvent vapor annealing is as an effective and versatile alternative to thermal annealing to equilibrate and control the assembly of polymer chains in thin films. Here, we present scientific and practical aspects of the solvent vapor annealing method, including the discussion of such factors as non-equilibrium conformational states and chain dynamics in thin films in the presence of solvent. Homopolymer and block copolymer films have been used in model studies to evaluate the robustness and the reproducibility of the solvent vapor processing, as well as to assess polymer-solvent interactions under confinement. Advantages of utilizing a well-controlled solvent vapor environment, including practically interesting regimes of weakly saturated vapor leading to poorly swollen states, are discussed. Special focus is given to dual temperature control over the set-up instrumentation and to the potential of solvo-thermal annealing. The evaluated insights into annealing dynamics derived from the studies on block copolymer films can be applied to improve the processing of thin films of crystalline and conjugated polymers as well as polymer composite in confined geometries.
Highlights
Polymer films represent one of the most used classes of soft matter with applications ranging from functional coatings and sensors to separation membranes and organic electronics
In order to gain a deeper understanding of the process of the solvent uptake by thin polymer films, it is indispensable to have precise control over the procedure parameters, such as the temperature of
The during physical properties of dynamic the employed solvent have toannealing be taken into account when deciding thickness swelling
Summary
Polymer films represent one of the most used classes of soft matter with applications ranging from functional coatings and sensors to separation membranes and organic electronics. Along with the chemical composition, the conformations of macromolecular chains determine the properties of polymer films such as glass transition temperature (Tg ) [1,2], electron densities [3], wetting [4,5], rheology [6], solvent absorption, and swelling dynamics [7,8]. The effect was presumably attributed to the reduced entanglement density caused by the rapid quenching of non-equilibrium chain conformations during spin coating. Advancing the understanding and the usage of polymer-based materials requires that film preparation and film processing reliably and reproducibly bring the system to a desired (quasi) equilibrium state [2,13]
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