Orientation and Phase Behavior of Block Copolymers in External Electric Fields

The influence of electric fields on the microdomain structure of block copolymers has been studied. The results range from an analysis of the mechanism and kinetics of the reorientation process, via the discussion of the driving force, to first investigations on the influence of an electric field on the phase behavior. The electric field induced effects were investigated by in-situ synchrotron small-angle x-ray scattering. The first part concerns the analysis of the mechanism and kinetics of the alignment of lamellar forming diblock copolymer solutions as well as a quantitative study of the reorientation kinetics of various block copolymers in order to clarify the driving force of reorientation in a DC electric field. The second part describes the influence of an electric field on the phase behavior of block copolymers. It is shown that a gyroid phase (G) as well as a hexagonally perforated lamella phase (HPL) exposed to an electric field undergo a phase transition to cylinders (C) and lamellae (L), respectively. Furthermore, an anisotropic deformation of the chain conformation in various lamellar and cylindrical block copolymer solutions via electric fields is demonstrated.