Phase behavior of a PEO-PPO-PEO (Pluronic P103) triblock copolymer in water is investigated using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and rheology. Pluronic P103 shows apparent two gel states in different temperature regions. The first sol-to-gel transition at a lower temperature (i.e., the hard gel I state) turns out to be the hexagonal microphase as evidenced by the combined SANS and SAXS and the frequency dependence of both G' and G'' in rheology. In contrast to the hard gel I, the second sol-to-gel transition (i.e., the hard gel II state) at a higher temperature represents the block copolymer micelles in somewhat disordered state rather than the ordered state seen in the hard gel I. Moreover, turbidity change depending only on the temperature with four distinct regions is observed and the large aggregates with size larger than 5,000 nm are detected with DLS in the turbid solution region. Based upon the present study, two different gelation mechanisms for aqueous PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer solutions are proposed.
Luminescent polynorbornene (PNB)/quantum dot (CdSe@ZnS; QD) composite nanorods and nanotubes were successfully prepared using anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes of various pore sizes as templates. To protect QDs with high quantum yield from quenching during the phosphoric acid treatment used to remove the AAO templates, chemically stable and optically clear norbornene-maleic anhydride copolymers (P(NB-r-MA)) were employed as a capping agent for QDs. The amine-terminated QDs reacted with maleic anhydride moieties in P(NBr-MA) to form PNB-grafted QDs. The chemical-and photo-stability of QDs encapsulated with PNB copolymers were investigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. By varying the pore size of the AAO templates from 40 to 380 nm, PNB/QD composite nanorods or nanotubes were obtained with a good dispersion of QDs in the PNB matrix.
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