Teruaki Hayakawa

We report the self-assembly of organic-inorganic block copolymers (BCP) in thin-films by simple solvent annealing on unmodified substrates. The resulting vertically oriented lamellae and cylinders are converted to a hard silica mask by a single step highly selective oxygen plasma etching. The size of the resulting nanostructures in the case of cylinders is less than 10 nm.

Self-organization on three length scales is exhibited by a block copolymer of styrene and an oligothiophene-bearing isoprene in cast films. For example, a phase-separated nanostructure consisting of π-conjugated oligothiophene molecules is self-aligned perpendicular to the substrate, as revealed in a TEM image of a section through the film (see picture). Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2003/z19877_s.pdf or from the au

Poly(styrene-b-semifluorinated isoprene) block copolymers with −CF2H-terminated side groups were synthesized by the esterification reaction of a poly(styrene-b-hydroxylated 1,2-/3,4-isoprene) block copolymer with semifluorinated acid chlorides. Two distinct first-order transitions were observed by DSC measurements in the resulting block copolymers at temperatures below the glass transition of polystyrene. The transition temperatures of the longer fluorocarbon units (10 −CF2− units) were found to

A novel fabrication of the chemically and topologically heterogeneous patterns on the surface of polymeric films over an area of more than 1 square centimeter in a single step was demonstrated by using the self-organizing character of polystyrene-b-oligothiophene block copolymers. Hexagonally arranged open pores of a size of approximately 2 mum are spontaneously formed by casting the polymer solution under a moist air flow. The amphiphilic character of the polystyrene-b-oligothiophene block copo