Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymeric Materials, Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
J Phys Chem B. 2013 May 9;117(18):5748-56. doi: 10.1021/jp400882h. Epub 2013 Apr 30.
We extended self-consistent field theory to explore self-assembly behavior of linear multiblock copolymers consisting of alternative rod and coil blocks. Such rod-coil multiblock copolymers are found to be capable of self-assembling into hierarchical smectic microstructures. For the copolymers with long rod end block, lamellae-in-lamellar structures containing two smectic C phases at small and large length scales were observed. It was found that the hierarchical smectic structures exhibit not only double periodicities in overall structure but also double orientational orders of rod blocks. Additionally, these hierarchical smectic structures can be tailed by tuning the relative length of the coil blocks. For the copolymers with long coil end block, the multiblock copolymers can self-assemble into hierarchical lamellar structures with smectic phases only at the small length scale. The findings gained through the present study may offer valuable information for understanding the self-assembly behavior of complicated rod-coil copolymers and designing polymeric materials with advanced properties.
我们扩展了自洽场理论，以探索由交替的棒状和线圈嵌段组成的线性多嵌段共聚物的自组装行为。这种棒-线多嵌段共聚物被发现能够自组装成分级近晶微结构。对于具有长棒状末端嵌段的共聚物，在小和大长度尺度上观察到包含两个近晶 C 相的层状-层状结构。结果发现，分级近晶结构不仅在整体结构中表现出双重周期性，而且棒状嵌段也具有双重取向有序性。此外，通过调整线圈嵌段的相对长度，可以对这些分级近晶结构进行修饰。对于具有长线圈末端嵌段的共聚物，多嵌段共聚物可以自组装成具有近晶相的分级层状结构，但仅在小长度尺度上。通过本研究获得的结果可能为理解复杂棒-线共聚物的自组装行为和设计具有先进性能的聚合物材料提供有价值的信息。
