Real-time and in situ observation of structural evolution of giant block copolymer thin film under solvent vapor annealing by atomic force microscopy

An instrumentation technique for real-time, in situ and real space observation of microphase separation was proposed for ultra-high molecular weight block copolymer thin films (1010 kg mol(−1), domain spacing of 180 nm) under high solvent vapor swelling conditions. This is made possible by a combination of a homebuilt chamber which is capable of supplying sufficient amount of vapor, and force–distance curve measurements which gives real-time swollen film thickness and allow active feedback for controlling the degree of swelling. We succeeded in monitoring the domain coarsening of perpendicular lamellar structures in polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) thin films for eight hours via tapping mode imaging. During the annealing process, the thickness reached a maximum of 8.5 times that of the original film. The series of temporal real space topographic images obtained via this method allowed us to study, for the first time, the growth exponent of the correlation length under solvent vapor annealing.