Effect of Nanoparticles Location On the Orientation of Block Copolymer Thin Films

The nanocomposites which consist of polymers and inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted great interest due to their infinite potentials to diverse applications such as solar cell, sensors, and ferroelectric devices. Previously, we successfully synthesized thermally-stable Au NPs using UV-crosslinkable polymeric ligands and applied Au NPs as compatibilizers in PS/PMMA blends. In this work, we investigate the effect of Au NPs on the orientation of PS-b-PMMA thin films. To mediate the interfacial interaction between PS-b-PMMA block copolymer and Au nanoparticles, we adjusted the surface properties of Au NPs by varying the PS/PMMA composition in the ligands and thus controlled the NPs location in PS-b-PMMA. As a result, the orientations of block copolymer thin film are remarkably affected by the NPs location.