Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Surface-induced structure formation of polymer blends on patterned substrates

Abstract

Phase separation in bulk mixtures commonly leads to an isotropic, disordered morphology of the coexisting phases1. The presence of a surface can significantly alter the phase-separation process, however2,3. Here we show that the domains of a phase-separating mixture of polymers in a thin film can be guided into arbitrary structures by a surface with a prepatterned variation of surface energies. Such a pattern can be imposed on a surface by using printing methods for depositing microstructured molecular films4, thereby allowing for such patterns to be readily transferred to a two-component polymer film. This approach might provide a simple means for fabricating polymer-based microelectronic circuits5 or polymer resists for lithographic semiconductor processing.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: AFM images (50 × 50 µm2) of a PS/PVP blend (50%:50% w/w) spun-cast from a tetrahydrofurane (THF) solution (1.5% polymer by weight) onto a Au surface (50 nm of Au evaporated onto a silicon oxide surface).
Figure 2: The same PS/PVP blend as in Fig. 1, spun-cast on a patterned Au substrate.The lateral surface pattern was created by microcontact printing, whereby a polydimethyl-siloxane stamp is soaked in a octacedyl mercaptan solution and placed onto a Au surface.
Figure 3: Films of PS and PSBr (50:50% w/w) spun-cast from toluene solution (2–4% by weight) onto a patterned silicon wafer which features alternating stripes of oxidized (SiOx) and hydrogen-terminated silicon (SiH).

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gunton, J. D., San Miguel, M. & Sahni, P. S. in Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena (eds Domb, C. & Lebovitz, J. L.) Vol. 8, 267–466 (Academic, London, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Jones, R. A. L., Norton, L. J., Kramer, E. J., Bates, F. S. & Wiltzius, P. Surface-directed spinodal decomposition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 1326–1329 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Krausch, G., Kramer, E. J., Rafailovich, M. H. & Sokolov, J. Self assembly of a homopolymer mixture via phase separation. Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 2655–2657 (1994).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Xia, Y., Zaho, X.-M. & Whitesides, G. M. Pattern transfer: Self-assembled monolayers as ultrathin resists. Microelectr. Eng. 32, 255–268 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Service, R. F. Patterning electronics on the cheap. Science 278, 383–384 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Walheim, S., Böltau, M., Mlynek, J., Krausch, G. & Steiner, U. Structure formation via polymer demixing in spin-cast films. Macromolecules 30, 4995–5003 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Binning, G., Quate, C. F. & Gerber, C. Atomic force microscope. Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 930–933 (1986).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Abbot, N. L., Folkers, J. P. & Whitesides, G. M. Manipulation of the wettability of surfaces on the 0.1- to 1-micrometer scale through micromachining and molecular self assembly. Science 257, 1380–1382 (1992).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Morkved, T. L., Wiltzius, P., Jaeger, H. M., Grier, D. G. & Witten, T. A. Mesoscopic self-assembly of gold islands on diblock-copolymer films. Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 422–424 (1994).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Morkved, T. L.et al. Local control of microdomain orientation in diblock copolymer thin films with electric fields. Science 273, 931–933 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Haus, J. W. in Quantum Optics of Confined Systems (eds Ducloy, M. & Block, D.) 101–141 (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1996).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  12. Prime, K. L. & Whitesides, G. M. Self-assembled organic monolayers: Model systems for studying adsorption of proteins at surfaces. Science 252, 1164–1167 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Halls, J.et al. Efficient photodiodes from interpenetrating networks. Nature 376, 498–500 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), the Volkswagenstiftung, and NATO. U.S. acknowledges the financial support from a research fellowship (Habilitations-Stipendum) of the DFG. We thank E. J. Kramer and J. Heier for their help preparing the PDMS stamps.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ullrich Steiner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Böltau, M., Walheim, S., Mlynek, J. et al. Surface-induced structure formation of polymer blends on patterned substrates. Nature 391, 877–879 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/36075

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/36075

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing