Polymerization-induced microphase separation for higher-χ systems

Polymerization-induced microphase separation (PIMS) is a facile route to producing microphase-separated block polymer materials. During block copolymer synthesis, growing the second block under neat polymerization conditions drives spontaneous microphase separation, driven by the enthalpic penalty in the PIMS process. A homogeneous polymerization mixture is essential for PIMS to avoid macrophase separation and retain nanometer-scale morphology. However, such monomer-polymer compatibility contradicts the demands for access to periodically ordered structures at a downsized length scale, which requires increasing the segregation strength between the polymer blocks. 

In this talk, I will discuss how to design the polymerization mixture to increase the effective interaction parameter of the resulting block polymer materials. Based on the design principle, I will demonstrate that block polymer-templated microporous materials with ~1 nm pores and block polymer monoliths with ordered morphologies can be obtained.