Reversible sphere-to-lamellar wetting transition at the interface of a diblock copolymer system

Carvalho, J. L., Massa, M. V., Cormier, S. L., Matsen, M. W. and Dalnoki-Veress, K. (2011) Reversible sphere-to-lamellar wetting transition at the interface of a diblock copolymer system. European Physical Journal E, 34 (5). 51. ISSN 1292-8941 doi: 10.1140/epje/i2011-11051-6

Abstract/Summary

We use ellipsometry to investigate a transition in the morphology of a sphere-forming diblock copolymer thin-film system. At an interface the diblock morphology may differ from the bulk when the interfacial tension favours wetting of the minority domain, thereby inducing a sphere-to-lamella transition. In a small, favourable window in energetics, one may observe this transition simply by adjusting the temperature. Ellipsometry is ideally suited to the study of the transition because the additional interface created by the wetting layer affects the polarisation of light reflected from the sample. Here we study thin films of poly(butadiene-ethylene oxide) (PB-PEO), which order to form PEO minority spheres in a PB matrix. As temperature is varied, the reversible transition from a partially wetting layer of PEO spheres to a full wetting layer at the substrate is investigated.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/20435
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Publisher	Springer
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