Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Activity: Patterned polymer brushes, that is, thin films of polymers end anchored to surfaces are becoming increasingly important in a number of advanced technology applications ranging from microelectronics to biotechnology. A patterned polymer brush in comparison is one that is attached to a surface in a spatially defined micron or nanometer-sized region. A focus of the proposed research will be to examine the synthesis of di- and triblock copolymer brushes and to evaluate in detail their polymerization and microstructure. A second focus of this proposal will be to pattern polymer brushes at length scales comparable to brush length and to investigate their behavior and microstructure in these confined regions. Patterning methods will include e-beam and EUV lithography as well as near-field scanning optical methods. If successful, this study will provide an exciting opportunity to overcome many of the barriers currently encountered in small scale (~10 nm) structure formation and at the same time provide an excellent model system for exploring the converging length scales in top-down (lithography) and bottom-up (self-assembly) processing. We expect that this convergence will lead to interesting synergies and may enable directed assembly of the block copolymer brushes. Such an approach could bridge the gap between the limits of current lithographic methods (>50 nm) and the need to achieve nanostructures as small as 10 nm. The proposed research will require expertise in polymer synthesis, lithographic patterning and analytical methods capable of characterizing the small-scale structures we plan to produce. To aid us in the characterization of these new materials, we will make use of our collaborations to investigate the patterned block copolymer brushes using a range of synchrotron based analytical methods including X-ray reflectometry, grazing incidence (GI) SAXS and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) studies. Broader Impacts Resulting from the Proposed Activity: This program will engage motivated undergraduate researchers throughout the course of the proposed research program. Students will be connected with graduate student mentors and will participate in all aspects of the research program. REU students from programs at Cornell will take part during the summer. Participants in this program will take part in outreach activities aimed at communicating the use of patterned polymer brushes. We will also provide educational samples of patterned brushes to interested teachers during participation in Cornell high school teacher outreach activities. A number of companies will collaborate with us on our research activities helping to carry out patterning studies. Both graduate students and especially undergraduate students will be encouraged to carry out work internships with our collaborators.
