Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/E060609/1
Title:	Fundamental Physics and Biophysical Applications of Block Copolymers
Principal Investigator:	Sivaniah, Dr E
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Physics
Organisation:	University of Cambridge
Scheme:	Advanced Fellowship
Starts:	31 March 2008	Ends:	30 March 2013	Value (£):	666,190
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Materials Characterisation Materials Synthesis & Growth
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Manufacturing
Related Grants:
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 24 Apr 2007 Materials Fellowships 2007 - Interviews FinalDecisionYetToBeMade 27 Mar 2007 Materials Fellowships Sift Panel InvitedForInterview
Summary on Grant Application Form
A-block-B block copolymers are two polymer species that have been chemically connected. If the polymers A and B were not chemically connected, the mixture of polymers would (usually) macrophase separate; a suitable analogy is the demixing of oil and water. The connected polymer chains in a block copolymer will also phase separate. However, the chemical linkage in the block copolymer (BCP) restricts this separation to occur at molecular dimensions only (microphase separation). The resulting material can form a myriad of different architectures where one group of polymer chains is periodically spaced in a matrix of the other polymer chains.This material has been considered in great detail in the past decade and much of its physics have been established. However there are still outstanding challenges in this field. One challenge is generating BCP material with large degrees of long range order. This problem resonates with examples outside of BCP systems, e.g. the intrinsic strength of a metal is much higher than its actual strength. The latter depends on heat treatment of the material as it solidifies (or on the addition of suitable additives) to reduce the number of defects in the material. Metals and ceramics and semi-conductors technologies have their own particular solutions to this problem. A practical one, i.e. one that can be adopted industrially, does not exist for block copolymers.This proposal looks at this problem in one of two ways. In the first, we look at the effects of ideally rough surfaces on the self-assembly properties of the block copolymer. Rough surfaces effectively stymie the efforts of block copolymers to self-assemble near that surface. However surface roughness has directionality (consider the two orthogonal roughness values of corrugated metal sheet). We will show that is possible to use differences in roughness within a surface to uniformly orient self assembling BCPs; the result is a material with fewer flaws.An alternative approach to improving long-range order is to add suitable additives. For BCPs, the additives we consider are metallo-organic complexes (MOC). The metal ions, bound closely by organic ligands with high degrees of molecular polarizability, are capable of inducing similar dipoles in the polymer backbone. We will show that this kind of induced ionic bonding may improve the ability of additives to dilute the forces that bring about microphase separation in block copolymers. Gaining control of this is akin to gaining control of the melting point of the material; the result is we can more carefully control the 'heat treatment'.A related project involves applying the lessons we learn about BCP self assembly. In this case, we remove components of a block copolymer within a film to create a porous membrane. The inner surfaces of the pores are biofunctionalized by the addition of DNA aptamers that promote the selective transport of particular biomolecules through the membrane. The challenges in the project are to be able to control the porosity and alignment of the porous membranes. The rewards are being able to apply block copolymer research in the pharmaceutical industry.
Key Findings
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Project URL:	http://www.bss.phy.cam.ac.uk/~es10009/
Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.cam.ac.uk