Highly ordered arrays of nanoparticles in large areas from diblock copolymer micelles in hexagonal self-assembly

The creation of a near perfect hexagonal array of diblock copolymer micelles by solvent annealing directly on a single layer of micelles and their use in the synthesis of a highly ordered two dimensional array of Au nanoparticles on large areas were investigated. Polystyrene block poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-P4VP) copolymers assembled in to spherical micelles of a PS corona and a P4VP core in toluene, a selective solvent for the PS block. The solubility of P4VP in toluene is poor, thus a PS-P4VP copolymer chain with a high fraction of P4VP hardly existed as a single chain (unimer) in toluene. Thus exchange of unimers between micelles was limited in a toluene solution of PS-P4VP, and this exchange is necessary to obtain an equal number of copolymer chains per micelle for the same size of micelles. Results show that an array of PS-P4VP micelles in a perfect hexagonal order was created and were used in the synthesis of two dimensional array of Au nanoparticles over an extended area.