Nanodomain analysis with cluster-SIMS: application to the characterization of macromolecular brush architecture

We present the application of cluster‐SIMS for the analysis of the nanoscopic surface of diblock brush terpolymers (DBTs). This novel SIMS technique differs from conventional SIMS. It uses Au4004+ projectiles at 520 keV and an event‐by‐event bombardment/detection regime for the analysis of co‐localized molecular species. The performance of this SIMS method was tested on ‘bottle brush’ block molecules featuring a vertical aligned backbone structure. We were able to assess the extent of secondary ion emissions from the surface and analyze the degree of ordered alignment for DBTs by the fluorocarbon surface coverage. We demonstrate the feasibility of characterizing the homogeneity of macromolecular films at the nanoscale. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.