Nanostructured ethylene–styrene copolymers

Abstract

A judicious choice of a polyinsertion catalyst and monomer feed composition allows the one-pot synthesis of ethylene–styrene copolymers with an unprecedented structure, containing an isotactic polystyrene (iPS) block joined to an isotactic ethylene-alt-styrene sequence (iP(E-alt-S)). Both segments in the native polymer give rise to crystallinity. The characterization of the materials has been performed through different techniques. In particular AFM analysis of samples obtained by spin coating shows the presence of either circular nano-domains with about a 30 nm diameter due to self-assembling of the copolymer chains or bicontinuous nanostructured phases depending on the block lengths.