Perpendicular Lamellae in Parallel Lamellae in a Hierarchical CECEC-P Hexablock Terpolymer

Guillaume Fleury (1, 2) , Frank S. Bates (3)

1 LCPO - Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques
2 Team 4 LCPO : Polymer Materials for Electronic, Energy, Information and Communication Technologies
3 Univ Minnesota - Dept Chem Engn & Mat Sci

We describe the synthesis and phase behavior of a nearly monodisperse poly(cyclohexylethylene-b-ethylene-b-cyclohexylethylene-b-ethylene-b-cyclohexylethylene-b-ethylene-alt-propylene) (CECEC-P) hexablock terpolymer, synthesized by sequential anionic polymerization followed by catalytic hydrogenation. This multiblock copolymer, which contains equal volume fractions of P and compositionally symmetric CECEC, microphase separates through chemical incompatibility between C, E, and P and exhibits a complex morphology with two different length scales related to the local (C-E) and overall (C-E-P) sequences. We have identified a perpendicular lamellae in parallel lamellae mesostructure in the CECEC-P sample; where layers of rubbery P separate sheets of alternating layers of semicrystalline E and glassy C, arranged perpendicular to the larger overall lamellar structure.

Keywords: BLOCK-COPOLYMERS; ANIONIC-POLYMERIZATION; MICRODOMAIN STRUCTURE; TRIBLOCK COPOLYMER; BRANCHED POLYMERS; REPEATING UNIT; MORPHOLOGY; BEHAVIOR; POLYSTYRENES

Domains: Polymers

Guillaume Fleury, Frank S. Bates. Perpendicular Lamellae in Parallel Lamellae in a Hierarchical CECEC-P Hexablock Terpolymer. Macromolecules, 2009, 42 (5), pp.1691-1694. ⟨10.1021/ma900060f⟩. ⟨hal-00945179⟩