Morphological diversity from the solution self-assembly of block copolymer blends containing high molecular-weight hydrophobic blocks
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초록
내용
Self-assembled structures of high molecular-weight BCP structures can be prematurely settled to local energy minima without reaching a time-averaged equilibrium, which results in the emergence of intriguing morphologies such as three-dimensional (3D) micellar networks. This non-ergodic behavior has been pronounced in binary blends of BCPs differing their molecular weights. Here we report the solution self-assembly of the blends of two branched-linear BCPs sharing chemistries of both polymer blocks but differing molecular weights of hydrophobic blocks. We show that a progressive transition of morphologies from polymer hexosomes and cubosomes to 3D micellar networks, short cylinders, and spherical micelles fueled by the increase of the composition of a lower MW BCP in the blend. The labeling of the micellar networks suggested that the lower molecular-weight BCPs were primarily located at the sites having high interfacial energy to stabilize the complex nanostructures.