Orientation-Dependent Order-Disorder Transition of Block Copolymer Lamellae in Electric Fields

ACS Macro Lett. 2013 Jun 18;2(6):469-473. doi: 10.1021/mz400013u. Epub 2013 May 14.

Abstract

Electric fields have been shown to stabilize the disordered phase of near-critical block copolymer solutions. Here, we use in situ synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering to examine how the initial orientation of lamellar domains with respect to the external field (φ) affects the shift in the order-disorder transition temperature (TODT) of lyotropic solutions of poly(styrene-b-isoprene) in toluene. We find a downward shift of the transition temperature, which scales with lamellar orientation as ΔTODT ∼ cos2 φ, in accordance with theory.