Top: Schematic of a nanoparticle with a grafted “brush” of AB diblock copolymers

1. Soft Materials NanoscienceGlenn H. Fredrickson, University of California-Santa Barbara, DMR 0904499 The ability to manipulate systems on nanometer length scales is enabling significant advances in the science and technology of materials. Our group is developing computer simulation tools to study a wide range soft materials systems including polymers, surfactants, and composite systems of polymers with embedded nanoparticles. Our methods are based on field theory models that embed realistic polymer architectures and segmental interactions in a rigorous statistical mechanics framework. In the area of nano-composites, we are investigating the ways in which organic polymers can be structured around inorganic particles, e.g. metals and semiconductors, which will allow for great flexibility in orienting and organizing particles within a composite. This will provide access to a broad range of unique optical, electronic, and mechanical properties that have heretofore been difficult or impossible to achieve. Top: Schematic of a nanoparticle with a grafted “brush” of AB diblock copolymers Bottom: Examples of stable and metastable morphologies for such a system as predicted by self-consistent field theory simulations Reference: “Self-Consistent Field Theory for Diblock Copolymers Grafted to a Sphere,” B. Vorselaars, J. U. Kim, T. L. Chantawansri, G. H. Fredrickson, and M. W. Matsen, Soft Matter7, 5128 (2011).

2. Soft Materials Nanoscience Glenn H. Fredrickson, University of California-Santa Barbara, DMR 0904499 Broader Impacts: Our project has been leveraged through the UCSB Complex Fluids Design Consortium, which brings together scientists and engineers from industry and national laboratories with modeling and simulation experts at UCSB. A current focus is on the “directed self assembly” (DSA) of block copolymers to pattern microelectronic devices on 10 nm length scales. In collaboration with Intel and IBM, we are studying ways to estimate and eliminate defects in a variety of industry-relevant structures and motifs. www.mrl.ucsb.edu/mrl/research/cfdc A simulated dislocation defect in a lamellar block copolymer confined by a parallel channel cut into a photoresist A simulation of DSA in a cylinder-forming block copolymer confined to a cylindrical photoresist pre-pattern