Issue 12, 2007

Morphological transition during the thermal deprotection of poly(isobornyl acrylate)-b-poly(1-ethoxyethyl acrylate)

Abstract

A set of poly(isobornyl acrylate)-block-poly(1-ethoxyethyl acrylate) polymers has been prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization. The 1-ethoxyethyl protecting group can be removed by a mild thermal treatment yielding the poly(acrylic acid) segment. The thin film morphological behavior of selected block copolymers was studied for ex situ as well as in situ deprotected block copolymers using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Low-temperature thermal treatment yielded strongly phase-separated cylindrical features whereas in situ treatment at temperatures above the glass transition temperature of the individual polymer blocks resulted in the initial generation of a similar phase contrast followed by a decrease in phase contrast caused by selective surface enrichment of the more hydrophobic poly(isobornyl acrylate) segment.

Graphical abstract: Morphological transition during the thermal deprotection of poly(isobornyl acrylate)-b-poly(1-ethoxyethyl acrylate)

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Jun 2007
Accepted
25 Sep 2007
First published
23 Oct 2007

Soft Matter, 2007,3, 1537-1541

Morphological transition during the thermal deprotection of poly(isobornyl acrylate)-b-poly(1-ethoxyethyl acrylate)

D. Wouters, W. Van Camp, B. Dervaux, F. E. Du Prez and U. S. Schubert, Soft Matter, 2007, 3, 1537 DOI: 10.1039/B708494C

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