Consequences of low-χ block copolymer design

Abstract

We report the discovery of a new equil. triblock terpolymer morphol. Enabled design, we developed a strategy to decouple the domain sequence from the synth all previously reported periodic materials accessed by block copolymer self blocks dets. the phase and domain connectivity of the material. For an ABC model demands periodic domains with ABCB repeat units. We explored low-χ bl series of ABC triblock terpolymers having grafted polylactide (PLA), polystyrene (P (PEO) side chains. Partial mixing of the PLA and PEO end blocks results in morphol. (LAMP) with ACBC connectivity. Consequences of partial mixing decrease in domain spacing with increasing mol. wt. (and increasing PEO characterized by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron micro scanning calorimetry (DSC). SCF theory (SCFT) for brush polymers supports the importance of χ. To the best of our knowledge, these phenomena are unpreced self-assembly. This discovery introduces a new tool for controlling polymer struc materials design.