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Updated: May 7, 2026
Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Nanoparticle-driven orientation transition and soft-shear alignment in diblock copolymer films via dynamic thermal
Ren Zhang1, Gurpreet Singh, Alei Dang
1Department of Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA.
Abstract:
Sharp dynamic thermal gradient (∇T ≈ 45 °C mm(-1)) field-driven assembly of cylinder-forming block copolymer (c-BCP) films filled with PS-coated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs; dNP ≈ 3.6 nm, φNP ≈ 0-0.1) is studied. The influence of increasing AuNP loading fraction on dispersion and assembly of AuNPs within c-BCP (PS-PMMA) films is investigated via both static and dynamic thermal gradient fields. With φNP increasing, a sharp transition from vertical to random in-plane horizontal cylinder orientation is observed due to enrichment of AuNPs at the substrate side and favorable interaction of PMMA chains with gold cores. Furthermore, a detachable capping elastomer layer can self-align these random oriented PMMA microdomains into unidirectional hybrid AuNP/c-BCP nanolines, quantified with an alignment order parameter, S.
