TY - JOUR A1 - Kathrein, Christine C. A1 - Bai, Wubin A1 - Currivan-Incorvia, Jean Anne A1 - Liontos, George A1 - Ntetsikas, Konstantinos A1 - Avgeropoulos, Apostolos A1 - Böker, Alexander A1 - Tsarkova, Larisa A1 - Ross, Caroline A. T1 - Combining Graphoepitaxy and Electric Fields toward Uniaxial Alignment of Solvent-Annealed Polystyrene-b-Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Block Copolymers JF - Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - We report a combined directing effect of the simultaneously applied graphoepitaxy and electric field on the self-assembly of cylinder forming polystyrene-b-poly(dimethylsiloxane) block copolymer in thin films. A correlation length of up to 20 mu m of uniaxial ordered striped patterns is an order of magnitude greater than that produced by either graphoepitaxy or electric field alignment alone and is achieved at reduced annealing times. The angle between the electric field direction and the topographic guides as well as the dimensions of the trenches affected both the quality of the ordering and the direction of the orientation of cylindrical domains: parallel or perpendicular to the topographic features. We quantified the interplay between the electric field and the geometry of the topographic structures by constructing the phase diagram of microdomain orientation. This combined approach allows the fabrication of highly ordered block copolymer structures using macroscopically prepatterned photolithographic substrates. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03354 SN - 0897-4756 SN - 1520-5002 VL - 27 IS - 19 SP - 6890 EP - 6898 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lopez, Carlos G. A1 - Manova, Anna A1 - Hoppe, Corinna A1 - Dreja, Michael A1 - Schmiedel, Peter A1 - Job, Mareile A1 - Richtering, Walter A1 - Böker, Alexander A1 - Tsarkova, Larisa A. T1 - Combined UV-Vis-absorbance and reflectance spectroscopy study of dye transfer kinetics in aqueous mixtures of surfactants JF - Colloids and surfaces : an international journal devoted to the principles and applications of colloid and interface science ; A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects N2 - We report an analytical approach to study the competitive processes of solubilisation in micelles and of adsorption onto hydrophobic surfaces of poorly soluble hydrophobic dyes. The method is demonstrated on model systems containing two sources of Disperse Red 60: a bulk powder and a donor red textile, with molecularly dissolved dye stabilised in an aqueous environment by mixed micelles of anionic and non-ionic surfactants. The process of dye transfer between a donor textile (red polyester), surfactant micelles and an acceptor textile (white polyamide) was quantified by a combination of colorimetric analyses. UV-Vis absorbance was used to follow the extraction of the dye and to evaluate the solubilisation capacity of the micellar solution. A calibration curve for textile reflectance versus the adsorbed dye was generated to quantify the mass of dye transferred onto the acceptor textile. A combination of both techniques allowed us to compare the amount of dye desorbed from the donor textile and adsorbed onto the acceptor textile as a function of time for systems undergoing exhaustion-solubilisation mechanisms and only solubilisation mechanism. Up to similar or equal to 10 min of the washing process, the released dye is predominantly solubilised in surfactant micelles. At later times, the adsorption of the dye on the hydrophobic surface is energetically favoured. The shift of the desorption equilibrium in the presence of the acceptor textile results in similar or equal to 30% increase in the release of the dye. The reported methodology provides direct comparative analysis between the solubilisation capacity of amphiphilic stabilisers and the tendency of the dye to adsorb on solid substrates, important for designing novel concepts of disperse dye solubilisation and dye transfer inhibition during textile washing. KW - Dye transfer KW - Disperse dyes KW - Surfactants KW - Detergent KW - Colorimetric analysis KW - Washing fastness Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2018.04.024 SN - 0927-7757 SN - 1873-4359 VL - 550 SP - 74 EP - 81 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kathrein, Christine C. A1 - Bai, Wubin A1 - Nunns, Adam A1 - Gwyther, Jessica A1 - Manners, Ian A1 - Böker, Alexander A1 - Tsarkova, Larisa A1 - Ross, Caroline A. T1 - Electric field manipulated nanopatterns in thin films of metalorganic 3-miktoarm star terpolymers JF - Soft matter N2 - We report the effect of electric field on the morphological transitions and ordering behavior of polyferrocenylethylmethylsilane block (PFEMS)-containing copolymers. By analyzing structures in solvent-annealed films of metalorganic sphere-and cylinder-forming diblock copolymers, as well as of 3-miktoarm polyisoprene-arm-polystyrene-arm-PFEMS (3 mu-ISF) terpolymers, we decouple two types of responses to the electric field: morphological transformations as a result of an increase in the volume fraction of the PFEMS block by oxidation of the ferrocenyl groups, and the orientation of the dielectric interfaces of microdomains parallel to the electric field vector. In the case of 3m-ISF, the former effect dominates at high electric field strengths which results in an unexpected cylinder-to-sphere transition, leading to a well-ordered hexagonal dot pattern. Our results demonstrate multiple tunability of ordered microdomain morphologies, suggesting future applications in nanofabrication and surface patterning. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c6sm00451b SN - 1744-683X SN - 1744-6848 VL - 12 SP - 4866 EP - 4874 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER -