Self-Assembled Smectic Phases in Rod-Coil Block Copolymers. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Rod-coil block copolymers are self-assembling polymers that combine the physics of orientational ordering of rodlike polymers and the microphase separation of coil-coil block copolymers. Several new solid-state morphologies were observed in a series of anionically synthesized model poly(hexyl isocyanate-b-styrene) rod-coil diblock copolymers examined by transmission electron microscopy and selected-area electron diffraction. The rod-coils formed smectic C-like and O-like morphologies with domain sizes ranging from tens of nanometers to almost 1 micrometer. Both structural and orientational changes were found for increasing rod volume fractions. In addition, some morphologies exhibited spontaneous long-range orientational order over many tens of micrometers.

published proceedings

  • Science

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Chen, J. T., Thomas, E. L., Ober, C. K., & Mao, G.

citation count

  • 404

complete list of authors

  • Chen, JT||Thomas, EL||Ober, CK||Mao, G

publication date

  • January 1996