Harnessing light to create defect-free, hierarchically structured polymeric materials

Computer simulations reveal how photoinduced chemical reactions in polymeric mixtures can be exploited to create long-range order in materials with features that range from the submicron to the nanoscale. The process is initiated by shining a spatially uniform light on a photosensitive AB binary blend, which thereby undergoes both a reversible chemical reaction and a phase separation. When a well-collimated, higher intensity light is rastered over the sample, the system forms defect-free, spatially periodic structures. If a nonreactive homopolymer C is added to the system, this component localizes in regions that are irradiated with a higher intensity light, and one can effectively "write" a pattern of C onto the AB film. Rastering over the ternary blend with the collimated light now leads to hierarchically ordered patterns of A, B, and C. Because our approach involves homopolymers, it significantly expands the range of materials that can be fashioned into a periodic pattern. The findings point to a facile process for manufacturing high-quality polymeric components in an efficient manner.