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  • Self-assembly of highly asymmetric, poly(ionic liquid)-rich diblock copolymers and the effects of simple structural modification on phase behaviour
Title: Self-assembly of highly asymmetric, poly(ionic liquid)-rich diblock copolymers and the effects of simple structural modification on phase behaviour
A series of thermally processable, phase-separating diblock copolymers made via sequential ATRP of styrene and styrenic ionic liquid (IL) monomers with various alkyl imidazolium substituents were synthesized to cover a wide range of volume fractions, most notably those on the IL-rich side of the phase diagram. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis was used to confirm melt-state (and glassy state) phase behavior in which all four classic equilibrium diblock copolymer morphologies – body-centered cubic spheres (S BCC ), hexagonally packed cylinders (Hex), lamellae (Lam), and notably, bicontinuous gyroid (Gyr) – were observed. These PS-PIL diblock copolymers were found to have a high degree of conformational asymmetry and/or electrostatic cohesion within the PIL block, highlighted by the shift of the Lam phase window with boundaries falling between f PIL = 0.31 and 0.55. Variation of the alkyl group appeared to influence the strength of the Flory-like interaction parameter of the system, χ PS/PIL , such that simple substitution of methyl by n -butyl on the imidazolium IL substituent resulted in the emergence of the (notoriously segregation-sensitive) Gyr phase, superseding the persistent coexistence of Lam and Hex in the methyl-substituted imidazolium diblock copolymer phase diagram.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1808824
PAR ID:
10272319
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Polymer Chemistry
Volume:
10
Issue:
6
ISSN:
1759-9954
Page Range / eLocation ID:
751 to 765
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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