Fabrication of large-area single domain of supramolecular dendrimer and its application for opto-electronic devise

Abstract

Developing large-area, single domain of organic soft-building blocks such as block copolymers, colloids and supramolecular materials, is one of the most important issues in the materials science and nanotechnology. Owing to their small sizes, complex molecular architectures and high mobility, supramolecular materials are not well suited for building large area, single domain structures. In the described study, single domain of supramolecular columnar dendrimers was created over large area. The columnar structures in these domains have smaller (4.5 nm) diameters, higher area densities (ca. 36 Tera-dots/in2) and larger domains ($> 0.1 \times 0.1mm2$) than those of all existing BCP and colloidal assemblies. By simply annealing dendrimer thin films between two flat solid surfaces, single domains of hexagonal columnar structures are created over large macroscopic areas. Furthermore, solvent annealing method was also applicable for creating a large-area single domain of cylindrical structure. Observations made in this effort should serve as the foundation for the design of new routes for bottom-up lithography based on supramolecular building blocks.