Phase segregation of diblock copolymers in nanopore geometries

¹  Los Alamos National Laboratory - Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA
²  Environmental Research Laboratory, National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” Ag. Paraskevi, Athens, 15310, Greece

Corresponding author: maniadis@lanl.gov

Received: 12 September 2007
Accepted: 3 January 2008

Abstract

The self-assembly of a diblock copolymer melt in a confined regular geometry with a given pore size is studied using self-consistent field theory. For a particle in a polymer domain, we obtain the interaction potential as a function of the distance from the polymer interface. For a given concentration of particles of a certain size and separation, we find that microphase segregation is sensitive to the characteristic length scales of the geometry. In particular, novel polymer morphologies arise when the size of the pores and the distance between them are comparable to the diblock polymer radius of gyration R_g. Confinement can result in morphologies not allowed in the bulk. However, if the pore size is much larger than R_g, the effects are then limited to the vicinity of the pore surface.