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Materials Science and Engineering

Iowa State University

Block copolymers

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Symmetry Breaking Of In-Plane Order In Confined Copolymer Mesophases, G. E. Stein, Eric W. Cochran, K. Katsov, G. H. Fredrickson, E. J. Kramer, X. Li, J. Wang Apr 2007

Symmetry Breaking Of In-Plane Order In Confined Copolymer Mesophases, G. E. Stein, Eric W. Cochran, K. Katsov, G. H. Fredrickson, E. J. Kramer, X. Li, J. Wang

Eric W. Cochran

Packing of spherical-domain block copolymer mesophases confined to a thin film is investigated as a function of the number of layers n. We find an abrupt transition from hexagonal to orthorhombic in-plane ordering of domains when n is increased from 4 to 5. As n increases further (up to 23 in this study), the symmetry of the orthorhombic phase asymptotically approaches that of the body-centered cubic (110) plane. These results are interpreted in terms of the energetics of competing packings in the bulk and at the film interfaces. Detailed structural and thermodynamic properties are obtained with self-consistent field theory.


Effect Of Chain Architecture And Surface Energies On The Ordering Behavior Of Lamellar And Cylinder Forming Block Copolymers, V. Khanna, Eric W. Cochran, A. Hexemer, G. E. Stein, G. H. Fredrickson, E. J. Kramer, X. Li, J. Wang, S. F. Hahn Dec 2006

Effect Of Chain Architecture And Surface Energies On The Ordering Behavior Of Lamellar And Cylinder Forming Block Copolymers, V. Khanna, Eric W. Cochran, A. Hexemer, G. E. Stein, G. H. Fredrickson, E. J. Kramer, X. Li, J. Wang, S. F. Hahn

Eric W. Cochran

We investigate the effect of surface energy and chain architecture on the orientation of microdomains in relatively thick films (600-800 nm) of lamellar and cylindrical block copolymers of poly(cyclohexylethylene) (C) and poly(ethylene) (E). The E block has 26 ethyl branches per 1000 backbone carbon atoms. Melt surface energies of the C and E blocks are 22.3 and 20.9 mJ/m 2, respectively. Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS), scanning force microscopy (SFM), and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) show that cylindrical and lamellar CEC triblock copolymers orient their microdomains normal to the surface throughout the film thickness. However, a lamellar CE diblock …


Stability Of The Gyroid Phase In Diblock Copolymers At Strong Segregation, Eric W. Cochran, Carlos J. Garcia-Cervera, Glenn H. Fredrickson Mar 2006

Stability Of The Gyroid Phase In Diblock Copolymers At Strong Segregation, Eric W. Cochran, Carlos J. Garcia-Cervera, Glenn H. Fredrickson

Eric W. Cochran

The gyroid phase in diblock copolymers at strong segregation was stabilized. The intriguing topology of the network structure has inspired a diverse array of potential applications ranging from high-performance separation membranes to photonic crystals. The pressure field enforces incompressibility, while the exchange field is conjugate to the composition pattern in the melt. The Laplacian operator is treated implicitly with a fourth-order backward differentiation formula (BDF4), whereas the source term is discretized explicitly using fourth-order accurate Adams-Bashford.


Temperature Dependence Of Order, Disorder, And Defects In Laterally Confined Diblock Copolymer Cylinder Monolayers, Matthew R. Hammond, Eric W. Cochran, Glenn H. Fredrickson, Edward J. Kramer Jul 2005

Temperature Dependence Of Order, Disorder, And Defects In Laterally Confined Diblock Copolymer Cylinder Monolayers, Matthew R. Hammond, Eric W. Cochran, Glenn H. Fredrickson, Edward J. Kramer

Eric W. Cochran

Monolayer arrays of polystyrene-poly(2-vinylpyridine) diblock copolymer cylinders with excellent orientational order and a very low density of dislocations are prepared by cooling slowly from above the bulk order - disorder temperature (ODT) ∼212°C within silicon oxide channels one cylinder spacing a in depth and 2 μm in width. The translational order of this array, however, is short range with a correlation length of ∼12a. If such an array is heated to a temperature above the glass transition temperature of the block copolymer (100°C) but well below the ODT, a finite density of thermally generated dislocations is observed, which leads to …


Ordered Network Phases In Linear Poly(Isoprene-B-Styrene-B-Ethylene Oxide) Triblock Copolymers, Thomas H. Epps Iii, Eric W. Cochran, Travis S. Bailey, Ryan S. Waletzko, Cordell M. Hardy, Frank S. Bates Oct 2004

Ordered Network Phases In Linear Poly(Isoprene-B-Styrene-B-Ethylene Oxide) Triblock Copolymers, Thomas H. Epps Iii, Eric W. Cochran, Travis S. Bailey, Ryan S. Waletzko, Cordell M. Hardy, Frank S. Bates

Eric W. Cochran

The equilibrium phase behavior of 43 linear poly(isoprene-b-styrene-b- ethylene oxide) (ISO) triblock copolymer melts, with molecular weights that place these materials near the order-disorder transition, is reported. Ordered phase morphologies were characterized using small-angle X-ray scattering, transmission electron microscopy, dynamic mechanical spectroscopy, and static birefringence measurements. Interpretation of these results was aided by a modeling technique that facilitates resolution of reciprocal and real-space experimental data, leading to definitive three-dimensional morphological structures. Three distinct multiply continuous network morphologies are identified across a range of compositions between 0.1 ≤ f o ≤ 0.3, situated between two-domain and three-domain lamellae, where f o …