Rapid self-assembly of brush block copolymers to photonic crystals
Abstract
The reduced chain entanglement of brush polymers over their linear analogs drastically lowers the energetic barriers to reorganization. In this report, we demonstrate the rapid self-assembly of brush block copolymers to nanostructures with photonic bandgaps spanning the entire visible spectrum, from ultraviolet (UV) to near infrared (NIR). Linear relationships were observed between the peak wavelengths of reflection and polymer molecular weights. This work enables “bottom-up” fabrication of photonic crystals with application-tailored bandgaps, through synthetic control of the polymer molecular weight and the method of self-assembly. These polymers could be developed into NIR-reflective paints, to combat the “urban heat island effect” due to NIR photon thermalization.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
This work was supported by the NSF (CHE-1048404). R.A.W. was supported in part by the DOE “Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion” Energy Frontier Research Center (DE-SC0001293). R.A.W. thanks the Resnick Institute for a graduate fellowship. Reflection measurements were collected at the Molecular Materials Research Center of the Beckman Institute of the California Institute of Technology. We thank Zhen-Gang Wang for helpful discussions and Bryce Sadtler for assistance with the reflection measurements.
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Published online: August 21, 2012
Published in issue: September 4, 2012
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the NSF (CHE-1048404). R.A.W. was supported in part by the DOE “Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion” Energy Frontier Research Center (DE-SC0001293). R.A.W. thanks the Resnick Institute for a graduate fellowship. Reflection measurements were collected at the Molecular Materials Research Center of the Beckman Institute of the California Institute of Technology. We thank Zhen-Gang Wang for helpful discussions and Bryce Sadtler for assistance with the reflection measurements.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Rapid self-assembly of brush block copolymers to photonic crystals, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
109 (36) 14332-14336,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1213055109
(2012).
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