Effect of spreading solvents on Langmuir monolayers and Langmuir–Blodgett films of PS-b-P2VP

Langmuir monolayers of polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P2VP) diblock copolymers (with the same PS block length and different P2VP block lengths) formed at the air/water interface were characterized with the Langmuir film balance technique. Nonselective and selective solvents were used to spread the samples on the water surface and the spreading solvents showed large effect on the surface pressure–molecular area isotherms. The corresponding Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films of the samples were characterized with atomic force microscopy. The LB films transferred from the Langmuir monolayers spread with a nonselective solvent only exhibited isolated circular micelles, while those with a selective solvent exhibited quite different morphologies including planar structure, rodlike structure, circular micelles, and labyrinth pattern. As far as we know, the labyrinth pattern appears in the LB films for the first time.