Inline Rolling Shear Alignment: Deposition and Long-Range Order of Block Polymer Templates in a Fast, Single-Step Process AITranslate

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DOI：https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.1c01580

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We report the first demonstration of a rapid, single-step technique to align block polymer, thin-film nanostructures, which is amenable to continuous speeds of ≥10 mm/s. This method, termed inline rolling shear alignment (IRSA), uses an elastomeric roller coupled with an electric hysteresis brake to shear films before the casting solvent fully evaporates, and it can enable high-throughput, large-area manufacturing of patterns such as nanowire templates. IRSA is adaptable to various polymer systems including diblock and triblock polymers, and a post-shear annealing step can yield high-quality nanostructures with orientation parameters >0.99 and defect densities as low as 5 defect-pairs/μm2. To demonstrate the effectiveness of IRSA, platinum nanowires were produced from this rapid deposition and alignment approach using poly(styrene-b-2-vinylpyridine), followed by open-air, atmospheric-pressure plasma etching. This integrated concept, with 50× faster operation than existing processes, could be leveraged for cost-effective manufacturing of macroscopically aligned nanostructures in roll-to-roll systems.