Freestanding nanowire arrays from soft-etch block copolymer templates.

Nanoporous poly(4-fluorostyrene) templates on gold-coated silicon/silicon oxide substrates were prepared by the electric field alignment of poly(4-fluorostyrene)-b-poly(d,l-lactide) block copolymer thin films followed by mild degradation of the polylactide phase using dilute aqueous base. Electrochemical deposition of nanowires was accomplished using a protocol for the preparation of copper oxide. Freestanding nanowires were observed after removal of the template by either simple dissolution of the poly(4-fluorostyrene) or by treatment with UV irradiation. The annealing time, the electric field strength used to align the block copolymer films, and the template removal method are shown to influence the freestanding nanowire arrays. The "soft-etch" method described is generally useful for the preparation of templates and nanostructures that are sensitive to more aggressive template removal processes.

[1]  Jongseung Yoon,et al.  Enabling nanotechnology with self assembled block copolymer patterns , 2003 .

[2]  Shouwu Guo,et al.  Perpendicular Domain Orientation in Thin Films of Polystyrene−Polylactide Diblock Copolymers , 2005 .

[3]  C. Stafford,et al.  Nanoscopic Templates from Oriented Block Copolymer Films , 2000 .

[4]  M. Hillmyer,et al.  Nanochannel array plastics with tailored surface chemistry. , 2005, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[5]  Jin Kon Kim,et al.  Enhancement in the Orientation of the Microdomain in Block Copolymer Thin Films upon the Addition of Homopolymer , 2004 .

[6]  K. Guarini,et al.  Ultrahigh-density nanowire arrays grown in self-assembled diblock copolymer templates. , 2000, Science.

[7]  Dechun Zou,et al.  Preparation of free-standing nanowire arrays on conductive substrates. , 2004, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[8]  A. Rakhshani,et al.  Potentiostatic electrodeposition of cuprous oxide , 1988 .

[9]  Marc A. Hillmyer,et al.  Nanoporous materials from block copolymer precursors , 2005 .

[10]  Ting Xu,et al.  Highly Oriented and Ordered Arrays from Block Copolymers via Solvent Evaporation , 2004 .

[11]  Yu Xuan,et al.  Solvent-induced microphase separation in diblock copolymer thin films with reversibly switchable morphology. , 2004, The Journal of chemical physics.

[12]  Ian W. Hamley,et al.  The physics of block copolymers , 1998 .

[13]  Yu Xuan,et al.  Morphology Development of Ultrathin Symmetric Diblock Copolymer Film via Solvent Vapor Treatment , 2004 .

[14]  G. Krausch,et al.  Nanostructured Thin Films via Self‐Assembly of Block Copolymers , 2002 .

[15]  T. Emrick,et al.  Directed Deposition of Nanoparticles Using Diblock Copolymer Templates , 2003 .

[16]  Graeme Moad,et al.  Living radical polymerization by the RAFT process , 2005 .

[17]  P. Nealey,et al.  Epitaxial self-assembly of block copolymers on lithographically defined nanopatterned substrates , 2003, Nature.

[18]  Christopher K. Ober,et al.  Patternable block copolymers , 2005 .

[19]  Todd Emrick,et al.  Self-directed self-assembly of nanoparticle/copolymer mixtures , 2005, Nature.

[20]  Richard A. Register,et al.  Large area dense nanoscale patterning of arbitrary surfaces , 2001 .

[21]  C. Hawker,et al.  Interfacial Interaction Dependence of Microdomain Orientation in Diblock Copolymer Thin Films , 2005 .

[22]  T. Goldman,et al.  Electrochemical Deposition of Copper(I) Oxide Films , 1996 .

[23]  M. Hillmyer,et al.  Large area nanolithographic templates by selective etching of chemically stained block copolymer thin films , 2004 .