Issue 39, 2019

Dispersity and architecture driven self-assembly and confined crystallization of symmetric branched block copolymers

Abstract

The effect of macromolecular architecture on the morphology and thermal characteristics of triblock copolymers was evaluated for linear, H-shaped, and arachnearm architectures with poly(cis-cyclooctene) (PCOE) midblocks flanked with arms of poly(D,L-lactide) (PLA). Chain topology was found to significantly influence the interfacial curvature of the microphase separated domains, as implicated by morphological differences observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The branched molecular architectures and molar mass dispersities (Đ) of the triblock polymers examined here resulted in a significant shift in the phase boundaries between conventional equilibrium microphase separated structures to higher volume fractions of the end blocks (i.e., PLA) as compared to conventional low dispersity linear triblocks. Macromolecular topology was also found to strongly influence the extent of homo- vs. heterogeneous nucleation in the semi-crystalline PCOE block. The culmination of the bulk phase behavior analysis demonstrates the ability to fine-tune the properties of the block polymers by exploiting different architectures through a synthetically straightforward route.

Graphical abstract: Dispersity and architecture driven self-assembly and confined crystallization of symmetric branched block copolymers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Aug 2019
Accepted
13 Sep 2019
First published
19 Sep 2019

Polym. Chem., 2019,10, 5385-5395

Author version available

Dispersity and architecture driven self-assembly and confined crystallization of symmetric branched block copolymers

L. M. Pitet, B. M. Chamberlain, A. W. Hauser and M. A. Hillmyer, Polym. Chem., 2019, 10, 5385 DOI: 10.1039/C9PY01173K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements