Long-range single domain array of sub- 5 nm pattern of dendrimer in a double-sandwich cell

Developing large-area, single domain of organic soft-building blocks such as block copolymers, colloids and dendrimers is one of the most important issues in the materials science and nanotechnology. Owing to their small sizes, complex molecular architectures and high mobility, dendrimer are not well suited for building large area, single domain structures. In the study, we report a simple and general method to create ultra-dense, single domain arrays of dendrimer cylinders over large areas. In this technique, perfectly ordered single domains of cylinders are generated by utilizing double-sandwich system. This discovery is significant in terms of the manipulation of organic soft-building blocks. Firstly, feature sizes of self-assembled dendrimers are much smaller (ca. 4.5 nm diameter) than those generated by existing soft-building blocks. Secondly, it is possible to create macroscopic array of dendrimer columns (>cm scale) by precisely controlling the preparation conditions. Finally, readily prepared dendrimers can be utilized in this process. We believe that the observations made in this effort should serve as the foundation for the design of new routes for bottom-up lithography based on dendrimers.