Next generation photoresist systems using block copolymer self-assembly have been developed and characterized within the Ober Research Group. Block copolymers containing methacrylate polymer backbones have been designed for low absorption in 193 nm lithography. The polymers synthesized are composed of two polymer chains that can be selectively crosslinked or removed, respectively, from the poly...

Surface-induced phase transition of asymmetric diblock copolymer in selective solvents is first theoretically investigated by using the real-space version of self-consistent field theory (SCFT). By varying the distance between two parallel hard surfaces (or the film thickness) W and the block copolymer concentration f(p), several morphologies are predicted and the phase diagram is constructed. ...

Polyethylene oxide –b– polypropylene oxide -bpolyethylene oxide (EO106PO70EO106) block copolymer self-organizes into polymeric supramolecules, characterized by NMR as phase transition from the isotropic stack-up block structure to the ordered cubic polymeric supramolecular structure. Its dependence on both temperature and copolymer concentration is clearly shown by the changes in line shape and...

The solubilization of hydrocarbons by micelles formed of diblock and symmetric triblock copolymers in water are compared in the framework of a mean-field theory of solubilization. The block copolymers contain poly(ethylene oxide) as the hydrophilic block and poly(propylene oxide) as the hydrophobic block and are designated as EXPYEX or EWPZ (where E and P denote ethylene and propylene oxides an...

A series of thermoresponsive diblock copolymers of poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate-block-di(ethyleneglycol) methyl ether methacrylate], poly(DMAEMA-b-DEGMA), were synthesized by reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerizations. The series consist of diblock and quasi diblock copolymers. Sequential monomer addition was used for the quasi diblock copolymer synthesi...

To date the self-assembly of ordered metal nanoparticle (NP)/block copolymer hybrid materials has been limited to NPs with core diameters (D(core)) of less than 10 nm, which represents only a very small fraction of NPs with attractive size-dependent physical properties. Here this limitation has been circumvented using amphiphilic brush block copolymers as templates for the self-assembly of orde...

The electrochemical properties of a solid polymer electrolyte consisting of a diblock copolymer and lithium bis oxalato borate, LiBC4O8 LiBOB salt, is reported. The spherical microphase-separated diblock copolymer is composed of a majority poly ethylene oxide PEO block and a minority random copolymer block of methyl methacrylate MMA and lithium salt of methacrylic acid MAALi , PEO-bPMMA-ran-PMA...

By using a combinatorial screening method based on the self-consistent field theory (SCFT) for polymers, we have investigated the morphology of H-shaped ABC block copolymers (A2BC2) and compared them with those of the linear ABC block copolymers. By changing the ratios of the volume fractions of two A arms and two C arms, one can obtain block copolymers with different architectures ranging from...

Block copolymer self-assembly generates patterns with periodicity in the ∼10-100 nm range and is increasingly recognized as a route to lithographic patterning beyond the resolution of photolithography. Block copolymers naturally produce periodic patterns with a morphology and length-scale determined by the molecular architecture, and considerable research has been carried out to extend the rang...