NanoPATterns, surface-induced

Surface Micelles and Surface-Induced Nanopatterns Formed by Block Copolymers... 

In this article we focus on the formation of long-range ordered laterally-segregated structiues of PS-fc-PVP block copolymers at interfaces. When a selective solvent is used, micelles form in solution and are subsequently deposited onto the substrate. In contrast, polymer deposition from nonselective solvents is controlled by the polymer-surface interaction and the resulting patterns are surface induced (Surface Induced NanoPATterns, SINPATs). In this brief review, these two borderhne cases as well as intermediate processes are discussed and compared. 

Albrecht, K., Mourran, A. and Moeller, M. Surface Micelles and Surface-Induced Nanopatterns Formed by Block Copolymers. Vol. 200, pp. 57-70. 

After having exploited the formation of regular nanoscale superstructures on clean metal surfaces we will now turn to systems in which the patterning is induced by the deposition of material on a clean metal surface, hi many cases this will lead to a reconstruction of the system on the nanometer scale. This approach is particularly interesting because it provides - as opposed to the nanopatterns foimd on clean surfaces - a higher level of control of the nature and size of the formed nanostructure. We can distinguish three basic types of systems, which have to be considered metal films, insulator films. 

Nanobubble assisted nanopatterning. If no efforts are taken to remove the gases dissolved, nanobubbles appear on hydrophobic surfaces after inmersion in aqueous media. The interaction of the nanobubbles with the hydrophobic surface can induce surface reconstruction [124]. Thus, the presence of nanobubbles can be employed to form different surface morphologies. For instance, short exposure times to aqueous solutions (several seconds) appear to be enough to create patterns on glassy polymers as polystyrene [11]. This process is described in Chap. 12. 

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