Facile non-lithographic route to highly aligned silica nanopatterns using unidirectionally aligned polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane films

Thin films (monolayer and bilayer) of cylinder forming polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane (PS-b-PDMS) were shear aligned by the swelling and deswelling of a crosslinked PDMS pad that was physically adhered to the film during solvent vapor annealing. The nanostructures formed by self-assembly were exposed to ultraviolet-ozone to partially oxidize the PDMS, followed by calcination in air at 500 degrees C. In this process, the PS segments were fully decomposed, while the PDMS yielded silica nanostructures. The highly aligned PDMS cylinders were thus deposited as silica nanolines on the silicon substrate. Using a bilayer film, the center-to-center distance of these features were effectively halved from 38 to 19 nm. Similarly, by sequential shear-alignment of two distinct layers, a rhombic array of silica nanolines was fabricated. This methodology provides a facile route to fabricating complex topographically patterned nanostructures. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015, 53, 1058-1064