Spontaneous vertical ordering and pyrolytic formation of nanoscopic ceramic patterns from poly(styrene-b-ferrocenylsilane)

A PS374-b-PFS45 copolymer self-assembles in thin films was shown to generate nanoscopic cylinders of PFS oriented normal to the surface in a PS matrix. Significantly, orientation normal to the substrate can be induced over a wide range of film thicknesses and is independent of the nature of the substrate surface. By cross-linking the PS matrix, a patterned array of PFS-derived iron-containing ceramic nanoparticles was produced. Thus, an important feature of this work was that nanopatterned surfaces can be very rapidly generated by simple spin- or dip-casting techniques.