Templated self‐assembly of block copolymers – Toward the rational design of plasmonic nanorods

Abstract

Shape-defining hard templates containing arrays of aligned cylindrical nanopores have been exploited as a powerful tool in the synthesis of tubular and solid, rod-like one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures consisting of inorganic and polymeric materials. Gaining control over the mesoscopic fine structure in the 1D nanostructures thus obtained has remained challenging. However, it is easy to conceive that their properties largely depend on internal features characterized by mesoscopic length scales. The self-assembly of block copolymers inside nanopores with hard confining pore walls can be exploited to rationally generate 1D nanostructures with internal self-assembled mesoscopic fine structures. These self-assembled mesoscopic fine structures can be converted to mesopores, into which functional inorganic materials can be deposited. Thus, 1D nanostructures that contain replicas of helical mesopores consisting of functional inorganic materials could be obtained. The complex shapes of the inorganic entities might add additional functionalities to those associated with the bulk inorganic material and with the anisotropy of plain 1D nanostructures. In this way, helical structure motifs can be generated that may exhibit specific optical properties, such as circular dichroism, as shown by simulations

Dynamic study of polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) copolymer in bulk and confined in cylindrical nanopores

“…studied. [11,12,14,17,18,20,21,23,24,27,48] In particular, we note the similarities of our system with the PS-b-PBD copolymer (PBD: polybutadiene) reported in Ref. 21.…”

“…[9,10] Moreover, both Russell et al and Steinhart et al have used these templates to confine block copolymers (BCPs) to investigate the influence of cylindrical confinement on the morphology of BCPs where the pore diameter in size is similar to the characteristic period of the BCP microdomain morphology. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Müller et al studied the crystallization behavior in polystyrene-block-polyethylene (PS-b-PE) within the alumina membrane [29], and Russell et al studied the capillary flow of a microphase-separated block copolymer into nanoscopic pores, by means of BDS. [30,31] The well-defined nanometric geometries of AAO templates in the nanoscale make these platforms interesting systems to investigate the influence of geometrical confinement on dynamics not only of the homopolymers but of block copolymers too.…”

Large-Area Broadband Near-Perfect Absorption from a Thin Chalcogenide Film Coupled to Gold Nanoparticles

“…Alternatively, particle-based plasmonic nanostructures have been fabricated by electrochemical deposition on porous templates, − self-assembling, − dealloying, − a combination of these techniques, , and sputtering. − As these absorbers do not require a high degree of periodicity, they were considered suitable for large-area surfaces; yet, experimental works showed low absorptance over a limited spectral bandwidth. This places severe barriers to the materials that can be used in the broadband perfect EM absorber .…”

Synergetic Effects of Al3+ Doping and Graphene Modification on the Electrochemical Performance of V2O5 Cathode Materials

“…In this context, AAO45 represents an ideal model structure for high aspect ratio materials, due to its well‐defined and controlled porous structure 1. The utilization of soft templates allows the fabrication of original inorganic nanostructures, for example ALD on self‐assembled polymer led to the fabrication of “complex ZnO nanorods containing helical motifs” 46, 47. Moreover, ALD infiltration of periodic structures, such as opal, has been widely investigated for the tuning of their optical properties as well as to elaborate inverse opals and more complex structures, e.g., by using a sacrificial ALD layer 48…”