Monolayered organosilicate nanostructures: Micelle-templating approaches

PMSE 224

Jeongsoo Choi, jchoi@us.ibm.com, Bas G. G. Lohmeijer, basloh@us.ibm.com, Thomas M. Hermans, Ho-Cheol Kim, hckim@us.ibm.com, Geraud Dubois, gdubois@us.ibm.com, Russell C. Pratt, rcpratt@us.ibm.com, Fredrik Nederberg, fredrikn@us.ibm.com, Robert D. Miller, and James L. Hedrick, hedrick@almaden.ibm.com. IBM Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120
We report in this study the formation of micelle-templated nanostructures via self-assembly of a single block copolymer/organosilicate mixture in selective solvent, followed by the preservation of the structure through organosilicate vitrification and copolymer burnout. In this study, we used poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-b-lactide)(PDMA-PLA) as an amphiphilicblock copolymer, methyl silsesquioxanes (MSSQ) as an organosilicate, and propylene glycol propyl ether as a selective solvent to PDMA block and MSSQ. The distinguishing feature here is that a simple variation in either solution concentration or copolymer/organosilicate mixture composition can generate widely different, unique nanostructures ranging from torroids to hollow cylinders to densely or uniformly packed torroids. We also highlight the novelty in our approach producing the robust inorganic nanostructures, distinguished from conventional block copolymer-originated nanostructures, with superior thermal and mechanical stability.