Abstract
A triblock terpolymer, polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (SBM), formed a double-helical nanoscale structure, composed of polybutadiene (PB) helical microdomains around hexagonally packed polystyrene (PS) cores in a poly(methyl methacrylate) matrix. The orientation of double-helical morphologies at various film thicknesses were studied using transmission electron microtomography, following solvent annealing and drying at a controlled solvent evaporation rate. The evaporation rate of the solvent and the film thickness were important factors in whether the double-helical microdomains were oriented parallel or perpendicular with respect to the substrate. In some cases, the perpendicularly aligned double-helical morphology extended several micrometers from the substrate to the air surface. A similar experiment using polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer proved that the presence of helical PB microdomains around PS cylinders is the key factor in achieving a uniform orientation over several micrometers throughout the film thickness.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Mr Ryuhei Kimoto (Kyoto Institute of Technology) for his preliminary experiments, which initiated this work. The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture through Grants-in-Aid No. 21015017 and No. 21106512.
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Hong, S., Higuchi, T., Sugimori, H. et al. Highly oriented and ordered double-helical morphology in ABC triblock terpolymer films up to micrometer thickness by solvent evaporation. Polym J 44, 567–572 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2012.69
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2012.69
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