Dendritic Superstructures and Structure Transitions of Asymmetric Poly(L-lactide-b-ethylene oxide) Diblock Copolymer Thin films

The evolution of morphologies of isothermally crystallized thin films with different thicknesses of poly(L-lactide-bethylene oxide) diblock copolymer was observed by optical microscopy (OM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Dendritic superstructures stacked with lamellae were investigated in thin films with similar to 200 nm to similar to 400 nm thickness. The lamellar structure was a lozenge- or truncated-lozenge-shaped single crystal of PLLA confirmed by AFM observations. The contour of the dendritic superstructures is hexagonal, and two types of sectors, [110] and [100], can be classified in terms of the chain-folding and crystal growth directions. These phenomena Are due to the interplay of the crystallization of the PLLA block, the microphase separation of the block copolymer, and the effect of the film thickness.

GIUSAXS and AFM Studies on Surface Reconstruction of Latex Thin Films during Thermal Treatment

The structural evolution of a single-layer latex film during annealing was studied via grazing incidence ultrasmall-angle X-ray scattering (GIUSAXS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The latex particles were composed of a low-T-g (-54 degrees C) core (n-butylacrylate, 30 wt %) and a high-T-g (41 degrees C) shell (t-butylacrylate, 70 wt %) and had an overall diameter of about 500 nm. GIUSAXS data indicate that the q(y) scan at q(z) = 0.27 nm(-1) (out-of-plane scan) contains information about both the structure factor and the form factor. The GIUSAXS data on latex films annealed at various temperatures ranging from room temperature to 140 degrees C indicate that the structure of the latex thin film beneath the surface changed significantly. The evolution of the out-of-plane scan plot reveals the surface reconstruction of the film. Furthermore, we also followed the time-dependent behavior of structural evolution when the latex film was annealed at a relatively low temperature (60 degrees C) where restructuring within the film can be followed that cannot be detected by AFM, which detects only surface morphology.

Microphase-Separated Brushes on Square Platelets in PS-b-PEO Thin Films

In polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) thin square platelets can be obtained via fast solvent evaporation by controlling the tethering density (0.08 < sigma < 0.11). The tethering density of the brushes is proportional to the thickness of the PEO crystal and increases with increasing initial solution heating temperature (T-i). When T-i < T-m, where T-m is the melting point of PEO, brushes with microphase-separated structures are observed. The formation of microphase-separated brushes depends on two factors: the strong incompatibility between PS and noncrystalline PEO chains (attached to the crystalline PEO) and the weak interaction between PS-PS brushes.

Formation of Two Kinds of Hexagonally Arranged Structures in ABC Triblock Copolymer Thin Films Induced by a Strongly Selective Solvent Vapor

An order-order transition (OOT) in the sequence of a hexagonally arranged core-shell cylinder to a double-hexagonally arranged dot in polystyrene-block-poly(butadiene)-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (SBV) triblock copolymer thin films is reported to be induced upon exposure to a solvent vapor that: is strongly selective for the two end blocks. These two kinds of hexagonally arranged structures could form when the film thickness is 44, 3.23, and 223 nm. When the film thickness is decreased to 13 nm, the ordered structure is absent. The sizes of the cylinder structures formed with the same annealing time in films of different thickness are compared to address the effects of film thickness on the phase structure. The mechanism is analyzed from the total surface area of the blocks and the effective interaction parameter in the solvent vapor.

Effects of polymerization conditions on hydrophilic groups in aromatic polyamide thin films

For polyamide used in reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, the content of pendant acid groups is critical to its performance. In this work, FTIR was used to analyze the acid contents in the polyamide films prepared via interfacial polymerization of trimesic acid trichloride (TMC) in hexane and 1,3-phenylenediamine (MPDA) in water, and the effects of reaction conditions, including monomer concentrations, time, and temperature, were studied. It was found that more pendant acid groups are present in the polyramide film at higher TMC concentrations or lower MPDA concentrations, and longer reaction times and lower temperatures also favor the formation of the free acids. These results can be explained by the monomer diffusion in the interfacial polymerization process. This work may help the design and fabrication of RO membranes with different hydrophilicity and target performance.

Crystalline morphology of poly(L-lactic acid) thin films

Crystalline morphologies of spin-coated poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) thin films under different conditions are investigated mainly with atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique. When PLLA concentration in chloroform is varied from 0.01 to 1% gradually, disordered structure, rod-shape and larger spheres aggregates are observed in thin films subsequently. Under different annealing temperature, such as at 78, 102, 122 degrees C, respectively, we can find most rod-like crystalline aggregates. Interestingly, we observed that nucleation sites locate at the edge of the holes at the original crystalline stage. Then, these holes developed to form chrysanthemum-like and rods subsequently with annealing time meanwhile the size and the shape of crystalline aggregate are changed. In addition. effect of substrate and solvent on morphology is also discussed. On the other hand, the possible mechanism of crystalline morphology evolution is proposed.

Monte Carlo simulation on symmetric ABA/AB copolymer blends in confined thin films

The effects of blend composition on morphology, order-disorder transition (ODT), and chain conformation of symmetric ABA/AB copolymer blends confined between two neutral hard walls have been investigated by lattice Monte Carlo simulation. Only lamellar structure is observed in all the simulation morphologies under thermodynamic equilibrium state, which is supported by theoretical prediction. When the composition of AB diblock copolymer (phi) increases, both lamellar spacing and the corresponding ODT temperature increase, which can be attributed to the variation of conformation distribution of the diblock and the triblock copolymer chains. In addition, both diblock and triblock copolymer, chains with bridge conformation extend dramatically in the direction parallel to the surface when the system is in ordered state. Finally, the copolymer chain conformation depends strongly on both the blend composition and the incompatibility parameter chi N.

Sol-gel deposition and luminescence properties of LiYF4 : Tb3+ thin films

Tb3+-doped LiYF4 films were deposited on quartz glass by a simple sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), photoluminescence spectra, and lifetimes were used to characterize the resulting films. The results of XRD indicated that the films began to crystallize at 300 degrees C and fully crystallized at 400 degrees C. AFM and FESEM images of singly coated LiY0.95Tb0.05F4 annealed at 400 degrees C indicated that the film is uniform and crack-free films with average grain size of 90 nm, root mean square roughness of 11 nm and thickness of 120 nm. The doped Tb3+ ions showed its characteristic emission in crystalline LiYF4 films, i.e., D-5(3), F--7(4)J (J = 6, 5, 4, 3) emissions. The optimum doping concentration of the Tb3+ was determined to be 5.0 mol% of Y3+ in LiYF4 films.

Surface plasmon resonance and electrochemistry characterization of layer-by-layer self-assembled DNA and Zr4+ thin films, and their interaction with cytochrome c

Through electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly, negatively charged calf thymus double stranded DNA (CTds-DNA), and positively charged Zr4+ ions were alternately deposited on gold substrate modified with chemisorbed cysteamine. Thus-prepared three-dimensional DNA networks were characterized by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IR-RAS). SPR spectroscopy indicates that the effective thickness of DNA monolayer in the (DNA/Zr4+), bilayer was 1.5 +/- 0.1 nm, which corresponds to the surface coverage of 79% of its full packed monolayer. At the same time, a linear increase of film thickness with increasing number of layers was also confirmed by SPR characterizations. The data of XPS and IR-RAS show that Zr4+ ions interact with both the phosphate groups and nitrogenous bases of DNA and load into the framework of DNA. Furthermore, the interactions between this composite film and heme protein cytochrome c (Cyt c) were investigated by SPR spectroscopy and electrochemistry.

Surface plasmon resonance and electrochemistry characterization of layer-by-layer self-assembled DNA and Zr4+ thin films, and their interaction with cytochrome c

Through electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly, negatively charged calf thymus double stranded DNA (CTds-DNA), and positively charged Zr4+ ions were alternately deposited on gold substrate modified with chemisorbed cysteamine. Thus-prepared three-dimensional DNA networks were characterized by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IR-RAS). SPR spectroscopy indicates that the effective thickness of DNA monolayer in the (DNA/Zr4+), bilayer was 1.5 +/- 0.1 nm, which corresponds to the surface coverage of 79% of its full packed monolayer. At the same time, a linear increase of film thickness with increasing number of layers was also confirmed by SPR characterizations. The data of XPS and IR-RAS show that Zr4+ ions interact with both the phosphate groups and nitrogenous bases of DNA and load into the framework of DNA. Furthermore, the interactions between this composite film and heme protein cytochrome c (Cyt c) were investigated by SPR spectroscopy and electrochemistry. Compared with the adsorption of Cyt c on DNA monolayer, this composite multilayer film can obviously enhance the amount of immobilized Cyt c confirmed by SPR reflectivity-incident angle (R-theta) curves.

Weak epitaxy growth affording high-mobility thin films of disk-like organic semiconductors

Thin films of phthalocyanine compounds show weak epitaxial growth on a monodomain film of a rod-like molecule (see figure). The resulting organic electronic devices exhibit high charge carrier mobilities close to those of the single-crystal devices.

Improvement of amplified spontaneous emission performance by doping tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) in dye-doped polymer thin films

A well-known red fluorescent dye 4-(dicy-anomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)4H-pyran (DCJTB) was codoped with an electron transport organic molecule tris(8-hydroxyquinohne) aluminum (Alq3) in a host matrix of polystyrene (PS), and the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) was studied by optically pumping. It was found that the ASE performance was significantly improved by the introduction of Alq3. The Alq3:DCJTB:PS blending thin films showed a low threshold (2.4 mu J/pulse) and a high net gain coefficient (109.95 cm(-1)) compared with the pure DCJTB:PS system (threshold of 15.2 mu J/pulse and gain of 35.94 cm(-1)). The improvement of the ASE performance was considered to be attributable to the effective Foster energy transfer from Alq(3) to DCJTB. Our results demonstrate that the Alq(3):DCJTB could be a promising candidate as gain medium for red organic diode lasers.

Development of nanodomain and fractal morphologies in solvent annealed block copolymer thin films

We have systematically studied the thin film morphologies of asymmetric polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) diblock copolymer subjected to solvent vapors of varying selectivity for the constituent blocks. Upon a short treatment in neutral or PS-selective vapor, the film exhibited a highly ordered array of hexagonally packed, cylindrical microdomains. In the case of PEO selective vapor annealing, such ordered cylindrical microdomains were not obtained. instead, fractal patterns on the microscale were observed and their growth processes investigated. Furthermore, hierarchical structures could be obtained if the fractal pattern was exposed to neutral or PS selective vapor.

Competition of lamellar orientation in thin films of a symmetric poly(styrene)-b-poly(L-lactide)diblock copolymer in melt state

We have studied the lamellar orientation in thin films of a model diblock copolymer, symmetric poly(styrene)-b-poly(L-lactide) (PS-PLLA), in the melt state on supported silicon wafer surface. In this system, while the PLLA block prefers to wet the polymer/substrate interface, the polymer/air as well as polymer/polymer interface is neutral for both blocks due to the similar surface energies of PS and PLLA in melt state. Our results demonstrate that the interplay of the interfaces during phase separation results in a series of structures before approaching the equilibrium state. Lamellar orientation of thin films with different initial film thicknesses at different annealing stages has been investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is found that in the early stage (annealing time t < 10 min), the polymer/substrate interface dominates the structure evolution, leading to a parallel lamellar structure with holes or islands formed depending on the initial film thickness. Later on, the neutral air interface becomes important and leads to a transition of lamellar orientation from parallel to perpendicular. It is interesting to see that for films with thickness h > 2L, where L is the bulk lamellar period, the lamellar orientation transition can occur independently in different parallel lamellar domains due to the neutrality of polymer/polymer interface.

Ordering-induced micro-bands in thin films of a main-chain liquid crystalline chloro-poly(aryl ether ketone)

Micro-banded textures developed from thin films of a main-chain thermotropic liquid crystalline chloro-poly(aryl ether ketone) in the melt were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). selective area electron diffraction, and atomic force microscopy techniques. The micro-banded textures were formed in the copolymer thin films after annealing at temperatures between 320 and 330degreesC, where a highly ordered smectic crystalline phase is formed without mechanical shearing. The micro-banded textures displayed a sinusoidal-like periodicity with a spacing of 150 nm and an amplitude of 2 rim. The long axis of the banded texture was parallel to the b-axis of an orthorhombic unit cell. In the convex regions, the molecular chains exhibited a homeotropic alignment, i.e. the chain direction was parallel to the film normal. In the concave re-ions, the molecular chains possessed a tilted alignment. In addition to the effects of annealing temperatures and times, the thickness of the film played a vital role in the formation of the banded texture. A possible formation mechanism of this banded texture vas also suggested and discussed. It was suggested that the micro-bands were formed during cooling.