Kinetics of directed assembly in diblock copolymer film in electric fields

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marcus Müller
• Co-Applicant: Dr. Yoav Tsori
• Subject Area: Experimental and Theoretical Physics of Polymers
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 175718569

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

Using complementary techniques we have studied the equilibrium thermodynamics of block copolymers in external fields – chemical surface patterns and electric fields – as well as the kinetics of structure formation. Our studies highlight the opportunities of tailoring field inhomogeneities and using time-dependent fields in order to optimize the structure formation and direct it into morphologies with long-range, defect-free order and registration with external boundaries. The fruitful and enjoyable collaboration has contributed to several publications, and the study has laid the basis for further applications.

Publications

• Computing how copolymers form nanoscale structures
  U. Welling, W. Li, and M. Müller
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1117/2.1201403.005354)
• Speeding up intrinsically slow collective processes in particle simulations by concurrent coupling to a continuum description, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 227801 (2011)
  M. Müller and K.Ch. Daoulas
  
• Studying amphiphilic self-assembly with soft coarse-grained models, J. Stat. Phys. 145, 967 (2011)
  M. Müller
  
• Geometry-controlled interface localization-delocalization transition in block copolymers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 087801 (2012)
  M. Müller
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.087801)
• Dynamical simulations of coarse grain polymeric systems: Rouse and entangled dynamics, Macromolecules 46, 6287 (2013)
  A. Ramirez-Hernandez, F.A. Detcheverry, B.L. Peters, V.C. Chappa, K.S. Schweizer, M. Müller, and J.J. de Pablo
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1021/ma400526v)
• Block copolymer ordering in cylindrical capacitors, Macromolecules 47, 1850 (2014)
  U. Welling, M. Müller, H. Shalev, and Y. Tsori
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1021/ma4021888)
• Defect annihilation in chemo-epitaxial directed assembly: Computer simulation and self-consistent field theory, MRS Proceedings 175 mrsf14-1750-kk03-05 (2015)
  M. Müller, W.H. Li, J.C. Orozco Rey, and U. Welling
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2015.285)
• Kinetics of directed self-assembly of block copolymers on chemically patterned substrates, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 640, 012010 (2015)
  M. Müller, W.H. Li, J.C. Orozco Rey, and U. Welling
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/640/1/012010)