Self‐assembly: Hierarchically Ordered Structures Enabled by Controlled Evaporative Self‐Assembly (Small 20/2010)

The cover picture shows hierarchically ordered structures, which are achieved by combining two self-assembly processes at different length scales, namely, top-down controlled evaporative self-assembly and bottom-up spontaneous self-assembly of nanomaterials, i.e., comb block copolymers (CBCPs). Highly ordered, microscopic concentric CBCP rectangles are formed in a gradient arrangement via evaporative selfassembly as a result of controlled pinning and depinning of a three-phase contact line of evaporating CBCP toluene solution confined in a wedge-on-fl at geometry. Subsequent solvent vapor annealing promotes spontaneous microphase separation of the CBCP, thereby leading to the formation of vertically aligned nanocylinders. For more information, please read the Communication “Hierarchically Ordered Structures Enabled by Controlled Evaporative Self-Assembly” by Z. Lin and co-workers, beginning on page 2250.