Effect of added homopolymer on the hexagonal phase formed by cylindrical block copolymer micelles in a selective solvent

Sayeed Abbas; Christina D Cowman; Timothy P Lodge

doi:10.1002/marc.200800599

Effect of added homopolymer on the hexagonal phase formed by cylindrical block copolymer micelles in a selective solvent

Macromol Rapid Commun. 2009 Feb 18;30(4-5):352-61. doi: 10.1002/marc.200800599. Epub 2008 Dec 23.

Authors

Sayeed Abbas¹, Christina D Cowman, Timothy P Lodge

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, USA.

PMID: 21706611
DOI: 10.1002/marc.200800599

Abstract

The effect of addition of A homopolymer chains to HEX phases formed by cylindrical micelles obtained by dissolving an AB diblock copolymers in an A selective solvent was investigated. The following general trends were observed: (i) order-order transitions from HEX → Gyroid (G) → Lamellae (LAM); (ii) the inter-cylinder spacing of the HEX phase increased; (iii) when the homopolymer molecular weight and concentration was high, macrophase separation of the system occurred. The A homopolymer chains do not mix significantly with the A domain of the diblock due to excluded volume interactions, causing the corona chain brush to contract. As a result, order-order transitions that reduce the interfacial curvature are observed.