There is considerable interest in devising nanofabrication strategies that rely on the molecular self-assembly of complex fluids and materials. Our efforts over the past several years have been focused on devising strategies to drive and direct that self assembly, largely by developing multiscale modeling models and methods capable of predicting the structure and properties of complex fluids and materials under external fields, including confinement, electric fields, or flow fields. These models and methods can vary considerably in nature and level of resolution, depending on the system and issues of interest. In this presentation I will provide an overview of various modeling approaches, along with their usefulness and limitations, in the context of a distinct nanofabrication strategy that relies on the formation of ordered, defect-free block copolymer structures on nanopatterned substrates. A new mesoscopic formalism has been developed to describe the structure and dynamics of block copolymer blends and composites, and we use it to explain the effects of surfaces and different types of confining walls on the free energy (and the concomitant stability) of a variety of morphologies of interest for lithographic fabrication. Many of these morphologies represent non-equilibrium states that are accessed by specific processing routes, and simulations can be used to discern the boundaries between such states and stable, equilibrium morphologies.

Polymeric self-assembly on nanopatterned substrates and the balance between equilibrium and non-equilibrium states

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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