In order to investigate nanoindentation data of polymer film-substrate systems and to learn more about the mechanical properties of polymer film-substrate systems, SEBS (styreneethylene/ butylene-styrene) triblock copolymer thin film on different substrate systems have been tested with a systematic variation in penetration depth and substrate characteristics. Nanoindentation experiments were performed using a Hysitron TriboIndenter with a Berkvoich tip. The resulting data were analyzed in terms of load-displacement curves and various comparative parameters, such as hardness and Young’s modulus. The results obtained by the Oliver and Pharr method show how the composite hardness and Young’s modulus are different for different substrates and different penetration depth.
As a “bottom-up” approach to nanostructures for nanofabrication, self-assembled block
copolymer thin films have received much attention not only thanks to the scale of the microdomains
but also due to the convenient shape tunability. In order to realize applications of self-assembled
block copolymer thin films in nanotechnologies, control over microdomain spatial and orientational
order is paramount. In this paper, using atomic force microscopy (AFM), we studied systemically
nanostructure transitions induced by post-solvent annealing in self-assembled block copolymer thin
films. Furthermore, a variety of thin films with well-ordered nanostructures, which can be employed
as templates for nanotechnologies, have been realized simply and at low cost.
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