Precise pattern replication of polymer blends into nonuniform geometries via reducing interfacial tension between two polymers

Patterned polymer structures with different functionalities have many potential applications. Directed assembly of polymer blends using chemically functionalized patterns during spin-coating has been used to fabricate the patterned polymer structures. For bridging the gap between laboratorial experiments and manufacturing of nanodevices, the polymer blends structures are required to be precisely patterned into nonuniform geometries in a high-rate process, which still is a challenge. In this Article, we demonstrated for the first time that by decreasing the interfacial tension between two polymers polystyrene and poly(acrylic acid) via adding a compatibilizer (polystyrene-b-poly(acrylic acid)), a polystyrene/poly(acrylic acid) blend was precisely patterned into nonuniform geometries in a high-rate fashion. The patterned nonuniform geometries included angled lines with angles varied from 30° to 150°, T-junctions, square arrays, circle arrays, and arbitrary letter-shaped geometries. The reduction in the interfacial tension improved the line edge roughness and the patterning efficiency of the patterned polymer blends. In addition, the commensurability between characteristic length and pattern periodicity for well-ordered morphologies was also expanded with decreasing interfacial tension. This approach can be easily extended to other functional polymers in a blend and facilitate the applications of patterned polymer structures in biosensors, organic thin-film electronics, and polymer solar cells.