EFFECT OF NANOPARTICLES ON MORPHOLOGY OF DIBLOCK COPOLYMER FILMS

Monte Carlo method with annealing method was applied to study the diblock copolymer (A(10) B-6) confined thin films with different volumes of nanoparticles. When the volume of nanoparticles increases, the morphology of diblock copolymer films changes from lamellaes to the mixture of lamellae and cylinder, and finally form the cylinders. Nanoparticles localized within one copolymer block phase. When the volume of nanoparticles are large enough, the 5-, 6- and 7-fold cylinder morphologies are formed, and the percentage of 6-fold cylinder are the largest one. The average size of cylinders decreases with increasing the volume of nanoparticles. At the meantime, the average size of copolymers increases first, and then decreases when the volume of nanoparticles increases. This investigation can help us to understand the self-assemble of diblock copolymers with confinements. Some comparisons with experiments results are given.