Abstract
Amphiphilic liquid crystalline diblock copolymer, PEO-b-PMA(Az), forms highly ordered microphase separated film with perpendicular PEO cylinders on various substrate just by thermal annealing. Parallel oriented PEO cylinders film can be also obtained by surface covering method with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) which inhibits the surface induced perpendicular cylinder formation. Herein, we present a simple procedure for alignment control of microdomains in micron-scale confined volume by high resolution inkjet printing (SIJ Technology) without patterned substrate. The PEO114-b-PMA(Az)43 lines with a several-micron width were prepared by the inkjet printing and subsequent PDMS top-coating and annealing. We found that PEO cylinders were oriented along the line just by the simple method. On the other hand, perpendicular PEO cylinders were obtained in the line without the top-coating. This method will afford several applications such as metallic nanowires, wire grid arrangement etc., because of the simple process without substrate pattering and desired shapes drawn by the printing system.
