Selectivity- and Size-Induced Segregation of Molecular and Nanoscale Species in Microphase-Ordered Triblock Copolymers

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• 作者：Richard J. Spontak ; Ravi Shankar ; Michelle K. Bowman ; Arjun S. Krishnan ; Mark W. Hamersky ; Jon Samseth ; Michael R. Bockstaller ; Kim Ø ; . Rasmussen
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2006
• 出版时间：September 2006
• 年：2006
• 卷：6
• 期：9
• 页码：2115 - 2120
• 全文大小：291K
• 年卷期：v.6,no.9(September 2006)
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

Microphase-ordered block copolymers serve as model systems to elucidate the potential of molecular self-assembly and organic templates tofabricate functionalized polymeric materials. Both aspects are related to the incorporation of secondary species such as low-molar-masscompounds or nanoparticles within the copolymer matrices. Since the resulting properties of such functionalized copolymers critically dependon the morphology of the blend or composite, the nonrandom distribution of such inclusions within the copolymer matrix must be understood.Using a self-consistent field theoretical approach, we quantitatively evaluate the segregation and interfacial excess of low-molar-mass andnanoscale species in ordered triblock copolymers as functions of block selectivity and inclusion size. The predictions are found to agree withthe morphology observed in a model triblock copolymer/nanoparticle composite, thereby demonstrating the generality of this approach. Ourresults suggest a wide correspondence in the structure-forming effect of molecular and nanoscale inclusions that will have implications in thedesign and processing of functional nanostructured polymers.