B.S.E. Thesis Research:

Adding homopolymer to diblock copolymers provides an efficient lever to tune the wide range of potential material morphologies. My research is concerned with the effect of the homopolymer:copolymer blend ratio on the resulting structure of block copolymers in thin films. Rather than studying discrete blend ratios, I am working with a flowcoater to apply a high throughput technique. Creating a continuous composition gradient allows the consideration of any particular blend ratio that falls within the range covered. This is particularly beneficial at phase boundaries where a distinct transition point may be hard to distinguish but transition in structure is especially interesting. My research is focused specifically on poly(styrene)-poly(ethylene-alt-propylene) copolymers blended with polystyrene homopolymers.