Homopolymer Nanolithography

Abstract

Future progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology necessitates further development of versatile, labor-, and cost-efficient surface patterning strategies. A new approach to nanopatterning is reported, which utilizes surface segregation of a smooth layer of an end-grafted homopolymer in a poor solvent. The variation in polymer grafting density yields a range of surface nanostructures, including randomly organized pinned spherical micelles, worm-like structures, networks, and porous films. The capability to use the polymer patterns for site-specific deposition of small molecules, polymers, or nanoparticles is shown. This versatile strategy enables patterning of curved surfaces with direct access to the substrate and no need in changing polymer composition to realize different surface patterns.

Reconfigurable Polymer Shells on Shape‐Anisotropic Gold Nanoparticle Cores

“…For example, the polystyrene (PS) shell on PS‐coated gold nanospheres was shown to shift its spatial distribution into a “Janus‐like” geometry upon a solvent polarity change . Such polymer shell shape shifting can serve as a bottom‐up surface patterning method at the single nanoparticle level, to allow nanoscale lithography and directed nanoparticle self‐assembly for developing functional nanomaterials.…”

Controlled Arrangement of Gold Nanoparticles on Planar Surfaces via Constrained Dewetting of Surface-Grafted RAFT Polymer

“…The surface-bound polymer was then structured by the constrained dewetting process, which leads to a nanostructured surface. The morphology of the nanostructured surface depends on the grafting density of the tethered polymer, as reported earlier [ 13 , 18 ]. For the calculation of the grafting density, the polymer layer thickness was required, which was determined by nulling ellipsometry.…”

“…The formed polymer aggregates constitute a polymeric nanostructure with different types of nanopatterns, ranging from spherical micelles over wormlike micelles to a network of micelles [ 13 ]. The morphology of the nanostructure mainly depends on the grafting density, as nicely demonstrated by Kumacheva and coworkers [ 18 ].…”

“…In the present work, a secondary layer of AuNPs can be self-assembled at the planar polymer surface by using RAFT-star-polymer. Kumacheva et al [ 18 ] demonstrated that nanoparticles may attach to surfaces with dewetted polymer films, but found that the NPs are densely packed and clustered in the areas where nearly no polymer is present, and that no particles are present in the polymer-rich areas. The aim of the present work was to adjust the strategy of constrained dewetting with subsequent nanoparticle attachment by using RAFT polymerization and specific polymer brush topologies in order to arrive at a surface-bound nanoparticle pattern of much higher regularity, higher stability, and with individual and well-separated nanoparticles being present on the planar surface.…”

Poly(Ethylene Oxide) Mediated Synthesis of Sub-100-nm Aluminum Nanocrystals for Deep Ultraviolet Plasmonic Nanomaterials

“…26,27 However, it is difficult to fabricate sub-100 nm Al nanostructures by top-down lithographic techniques due to the limited resolution, high cost, and time consumption. [28][29][30][31][32] Other laser-based or pulsed sonoelectrochemical methods have yielded sub-100 nm Al nanoparticles but with no distinct LSPR peaks in the UV region due to their broad size distribution and/or sever aggregations caused by the lack of surface ligands. 33 To date, the preparation of sub-100 nm Al nanocrystals (NCs) with strong plasmonic resonance in the UV region is still a great challenge.…”