Modifying Frank-Kasper Mesophases by Modulating Chain Configuration in PDMS- b-PTFEA Copolymers

Seungbae Jeon, Taesuk Jun, Seungyun Jo, Kyungkon Kim, Byeongdu Lee, Sangwoo Lee, Du Yeol Ryu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The common spherical mesophases observed from chemically distinct compounds have promoted extensive studies of packing structures in soft-matter self-assemblies. Here, we present a new approach for controlling sphere-packing phases by modulating homologous copolymer chain configurations. To this end, three sets of sample pairs, compositionally asymmetric polydimethylsiloxane-b-poly(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl acrylate) (PDMS-b-PTFEA) diblock copolymers (diBCPs) and their homologues containing the corresponding triblock copolymer (triBCP), are synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization and designed with the consistent volume fractions of the core-forming PTFEA block, fPTFEA= 0.20, 0.18, and 0.15. We identify the formation of C15 and hexagonally close-packed (HCP) phases in the triBCP-containing PDMS-b-PTFEAs, whereas the σ and C14 phases are formed in their diBCP analogues, respectively. These phase shifts into C15 and HCP, due to molecular configuration differences, reveal a significant yet unrealized role of chain configurations and the associated chain size effects in determining the stable sphere-packing phases in BCP systems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8049-8057
Number of pages9
JournalMacromolecules
Volume55
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Sep 2022

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