Tuning Melt/Brush Interactions for Functional Polymer Films

Polymer films are employed in a variety of industries that include electronic materials, anti-fouling coatings, barrier coatings, and adhesives. In many applications, the functionality of these films is controlled by surface and interfacial properties. Polymer brushes can modify the chemistry, energetics and function at a polymer/substrate or polymer/air interface. This thesis describes two systems where the structure and function of a polymer coating are controlled by interactions at a brush/melt interface. First, we investigated the role of substrate neutrality on domain ordering in thin films of poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) lamellar diblock copolymers con ned between a neutral free surface on the top and nearly neutral brushed poly(styrene-r -methyl methacrylate) silicon substrate at bottom. The PS-PMMA lm thickness (t) and brush grafting density (Σ) were systematically varied to examine their impacts on in-plane and out-of-plane ordering. A combination of high resolution microscopy and grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering characterizes lateral order and out-of-plane ordering respectively. Lateral correlation lengths at the top of the lm scaled as tn, where the exponent n increased from approximately 0.75 to 1 as Σ decreased from 0.6 to 0.2 nm−2. Out-of-plane defects such bent or tilted domains were detected in all films. Our results demonstrate that preferential interactions at the substrate can contribute to both in-plane and out-of-plane disorder. Second, we studied the phase behavior of bottlebrush polystyrene (PS) and linear deuterated polystyrene (dPS) in thin films. These nearly athermal systems exhibit wetting and dewetting transitions that drive bottlebrush dispersion or aggregation, respectively. These effects depend on the relative degrees of polymerization of matrix chains Nmto those of bottlebrush side-chains Nsc. When Nm/Nsc is low (≤1.6), the bottlebrushes are dispersed throughout the lm thickness with a slight excess at the free surface and substrate interfaces. When Nm/Nsc is high (≥8), the bottlebrushes are depleted from the interior of the lm and strongly segregated at the interfaces. The interfacial excess is driven by an entropic depletion attraction effect. These studies demonstrate that low concentrations of certain bottlebrush polymer architectures can generate brushlike surfaces and interfaces in any thermoplastic material through a spontaneous, entropy-driven segregation process.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical Engineering

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Mitra, Indranil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stein, Gila E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Donnelly, Vincent M.
• Robertson, Megan L.
• Ruchhoeft, Paul
• Ardebili, Haleh

• Block copolymers
• Nanopatterns
• Surface Science

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. UH Libraries has secured permission to reproduce any and all previously published materials contained in the work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/3659

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/3659