Dot Nanopattern Self‐Assembled from Rod‐Coil Block Copolymer on Substrate

Abstract

Nanoscale dot patterns are important in various fields. However, it is still a challenge to fabricate ordered nanopatterns on substrates through a polymer self‐assembly approach. In this work, it is reported that polypeptide‐based rod‐coil block copolymers can self‐assemble into surface micelles on substrates, thus forming dot nanopatterns. The size of the surface micelles is readily adjusted by the degree of the polymerization of the block copolymers. It is found that most of the surface micelles are in a sixfold coordinated lattice, indicating an ordered array feature. Defects such as fivefold coordination arrays and sevenfold coordination arrays are also observed, which are derived from the nonuniform size of the micelles and the existence of nonspherical micelles. The experimental findings are well modelled by dissipative particle dynamics theoretical simulations, and the simulations provide more detailed information, such as the packing manner of the polymer chain in the surface micelles.

Recent advances in the solution self‐assembly of polypeptides

“…In that system, the BCPs first form small aggregates in solution, then some aggregates anchor to the substrate, which serves as the seeds to trigger living growth of elongated micelles by incorporating the remaining small aggregates in the solution. We also found that through an adsorption‐assembly process of polypeptide BCPs can form ordered surface nanostructures on substrates, including well‐aligned stripe nanopatterns on plain substrates and orderly arrayed dot nanopatterns on microspheres formed by PBLG‐ b ‐PEG BCPs 60–65 . For example, Tang et al prepared micrometer‐scale and well‐aligned polypeptide stripe nanopatterns on a plain substrate 60 .…”

“…We also found that through an adsorption-assembly process of polypeptide BCPs can form ordered surface nanostructures on substrates, including well-aligned stripe nanopatterns on plain substrates and orderly arrayed dot nanopatterns on microspheres formed by PBLG-b-PEG BCPs. [60][61][62][63][64][65] For example, Tang et al prepared micrometer-scale and well-aligned polypeptide stripe nanopatterns on a plain substrate. 60 With the addition of water to the solution of PBLG-b-PEG BCPs containing a PS-modified Si substrate, the BCPs are adsorbed and assembled on the substrate into well-aligned nanostrips.…”

Archimedean Spirals with Controllable Chirality: Disk Substrate-Mediated Solution Assembly of Rod–Coil Block Copolymers

“… 47 In such a packing manner, the shell of the spirals occupied by PEG 112 blocks is about 16 nm, which accounts for a reasonable PEG stretching degree of 41% (the full stretched length of PEG 112 is about 39 nm). 48 , 49 In addition, considering that the diameter of the PBLG is about 1.4 nm, 22 we can infer that there could be about 4–5 layers of PBLG chains in the spiral strands.…”

Tunable Thin Film Periodicities by Controlling the Orientation of Cylindrical Domains in Side Chain Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymers

“…The periodicities of distinctive scales from side chain LC ordering and main-chain segregation of the counter-blocks will be co-existed and hence the hierarchical self-assembly will be governed by the combination of different driving forces [19]. Accordingly, modified models based on the SCFT approach [20] or dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations [21][22][23] were developed to characterize the self-assembly behavior in SCLC or rod-coil BCP. Based on the experimental and theoretic studies, the hierarchical self-assembly system exhibits morphologies significantly different from those derived from conventional amorphous BCPs based on coil-coil model.…”