Creating, Controlling, and Understanding Nanopatterns in Block Copolymer Films

许多纳米技术依赖于具有各种精确纳米级图案的材料和表面。能够容易制造的类型越多，这些纳米技术的设计和构思的灵活性就越大。通过光刻技术很难廉价地制造纳米管，因此能够自然地自组装成所需纳米管的材料被大量研究。在这些材料中有嵌段共聚物，特别是以薄膜的形式，可以提供纳米表面。在我们最近的研究中，我们已经证明了一种简单而廉价的成膜过程，称为浸渍涂布，当应用于嵌段共聚物时，只需改变浸渍镀膜的速度，就可以在一步中同时控制薄膜厚度及其图案。我们还利用所谓的朗缪尔-布洛杰特技术在水面上获得了具有特殊图案的极薄薄膜，包括方形图案(例如，用于纳米电子学)。基于这些非常有希望的结果，我们特别建议以各种方式发展嵌段共聚物浸渍涂层技术以获得多样化的纳米颗粒。为了智能地创建和控制这些图案，我们希望加深对所获得的图案与所使用的嵌段共聚物的分子特征(通常与易于修改或微调图案的特殊添加剂相结合)、所使用的溶液的结构以及所使用的实验浸涂参数之间的关系的理解。同样，我们将应用Langmuir-Blodgett技术来控制特殊图案。我们将对我们的薄膜的两个应用领域做出贡献：医用纳米生物传感器和纳米光子学。我们的研究有望有助于加拿大纳米技术的发展，并直接培训HQP在这一领域和相关领域。

Many nanotechnologies rely on materials and surfaces with precise nanoscale patterns of various types. The more types that can be easily fabricated, the greater the flexibility for the design and conception of these nanotechnologies. Nanopatterns are difficult to fabricate cheaply by lithographic techniques, and therefore materials that are capable of self-assembling naturally into desired nanopatterns are heavily researched. Among these materials are block copolymers, particularly in the form of films, which can provide nanopatterned surfaces. In our research, we have shown recently that an easy and cheap film-forming procedure called dip-coating, when applied to block copolymers, can give simultaneous control over film thickness and its patterning in a single step, just by varying the dip-coating speed. We have also obtained extremely thin films with particular patterns, including a square pattern (useful, for example, for nanoelectronics), on a water surface using a so-called Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Based on these very promising results, we propose to develop, in particular, the block copolymer dip-coating technique in various ways to obtain a diversity of nanopatterns. To create and control these patterns intelligently, we want to develop our understanding of the relationship between the patterns obtained and the molecular characteristics of the block copolymer used (often combined with special additives that are an easy way to modify or fine-tune the patterns), the structure of the solutions used, and the experimental dip-coating parameters used. Similarly, we will apply the Langmuir-Blodgett technique to control special patterns. Two areas of applications of our films towards which we will contribute are medical nanobiosensors and nanophotonics. Our research is expected to benefit the development of nanotechnologies in Canada and directly trains HQP in this and related areas.