Guided assembly of block copolymers on alkanethiol-modified gold surfaces

PMSE 33

Amol Chandekar, amolchandekar@rediffmail.com1, Sandip K. Sengupta2, Carol MF. Barry3, Joey L. Mead3, and J. E. Whitten, James_Whitten@uml.edu2. (1) Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854, (2) Department of Chemistry and Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 265 South Riverside Street, Lowell, MA 01854, (3) Department of Plastics Engineering and Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 1 University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854
Functionalized alkanethiols have been self-assembled on gold to modify the wetting properties of the surface and promote or hinder the adsorption of copolymers containing both hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks. Microcontact printing and dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) have been used to pattern gold surfaces with hydrophilic 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid (MHDA), and the surfaces have been backfilled with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecanethiol (PFDT), such that the un-patterned regions of the surface are covered with this hydrophobic monolayer. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies demonstate that replacement of the MHDA-patterned regions by PFDT does not occur. Spin-coating of a mostly hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(ethylene) copolymer onto the patterned surfaces, and subsequent annealing, results in the block copolymer preferentially adsorbing on the MHDA covered regions and forming well-defined patterns that mimic the MHDA patterns, as determined by atomic force microscopy. Polymer lines having widths as small as 500 nm have been formed using this methodology, and significantly smaller patterns should be achievable.
 

Block Copolymers as Nanoscale Materials
8:00 AM-11:45 AM, Sunday, 10 September 2006 San Francisco Marriott -- Salon 7, Oral

Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006