Self-Assembly in ultrahigh molecular weight sphere-forming diblock copolymer thin films under strong confinement

Ultrahigh molecular weight (UHMW) diblock copolymers (DBCs) have emerged as a promising template for fabricating large-sized nanostructures. Therefore, it is of high significance to systematically study the influence of film thickness and solvent vapor annealing (SVA) on the structure evolution of UHMW DBC thin films. In this work, spin coating of an asymmetric linear UHMW polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) DBC is used to fabricate thin films, which are spherically structured with an inter-domain distance larger than 150 nm. To enhance the polymer chain mobility and facilitate approaching equilibrium nanostructures, SVA is utilized as a post-treatment of the spin coated films. With increasing film thickness, a local hexagonal packing of PMMA half-spheres on the surface can be obtained, and the order is improved at larger thickness, as determined by grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS). Additionally, the films with locally hexagonal packed half-spherical morphology show a poor order-order-poor order transition upon SVA, indicating the realization of ordered structure using suitable SVA parameters.