Materials with percolating mesopores are attractive for applications such as catalysis, nanotemplating, and separations. Polymeric frameworks are particularly appealing because the chemical composition and the surface chemistry are readily tunable. We report on the preparation of robust nanoporous polymers with percolating pores in the 4- to 8-nanometer range from a microphase-separated bicontinuous precursor. We combined polymerization-induced phase separation with in situ block polymer formation from a mixture of multifunctional monomers and a chemically etchable polymer containing a terminal chain transfer agent. This marriage results in microphase separation of the mixture into continuous domains of the etchable polymer and the emergent cross-linked polymer. Precise control over pore size distribution and mechanical integrity renders these materials particularly suited for various advanced applications.

Novel polymeric nanoparticles were prepared through the chain collapse of linear polymers driven by noncovalent cross-linking of dendritic self-complementary hydrogen-bonding units (SHB). Random copolymers containing SHB units, poly[(methyl methacrylate)-r-2-((3,5-bis(4-carbamoyl-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenoxy)benzyloxy)carbonylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (A1, A2), were synthesized with various incorporation ratios by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Dramatically different behavior was observed depending on the level of incorporation of the supramolecular units. At high loadings of A2 (6% SHB incorporation), intramolecular chain collapse is favored, resulting in the formation of well-defined polymer nanoparticles, which were characterized by scanning force microscopy (SFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and viscosity studies. In contrast, analysis of copolymer A1 (1% SHB incorporation) revealed that chain collapse occurred primarily through intermolecular interactions leading to large aggregates.

Detailed experiments designed to optimize and understand the solvent vapor annealing of cylinder-forming poly(styrene)-block-poly(lactide) thin films for nanolithographic applications are reported. By combining climate-controlled solvent vapor annealing (including in situ probes of solvent concentration) with comparative small-angle X-ray scattering studies of solvent-swollen bulk polymers of identical composition, it is concluded that a narrow window of optimal solvent concentration occurs just on the ordered side of the order-disorder transition. In this window, the lateral correlation length of the hexagonally close-packed ordering, the defect density, and the cylinder orientation are simultaneously optimized, resulting in single-crystal-like ordering over 10 μm scales. The influences of polymer synthesis method, composition, molar mass, solvent vapor pressure, evaporation rate, and film thickness have all been assessed, confirming the generality of this behavior. Analogies to thermal annealing of elemental solids, in combination with an understanding of the effects of process parameters on annealing conditions, enable qualitative understanding of many of the key results and underscore the likely generality of the main conclusions. Pattern transfer via a Damascene-type approach verified the applicability for high-fidelity nanolithography, yielding large-area metal nanodot arrays with center-to-center spacing of 38 nm (diameter 19 nm). Finally, the predictive power of our findings was demonstrated by using small-angle X-ray scattering to predict optimal solvent annealing conditions for poly(styrene)-block-poly(lactide) films of low molar mass (18 kg mol(-1)). High-quality templates with cylinder center-to-center spacing of only 18 nm (diameter of 10 nm) were obtained. These comprehensive results have clear and important implications for optimization of pattern transfer templates and significantly advance the understanding of self-assembly in block copolymer thin films.

We report synthesis of hierarchically porous polymers (HPPs) consisting of micropores and well-defined 3D continuous mesopores by combination of hyper-cross-linking and block polymer self-assembly. Copolymerization of 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (VBzCl) with divinylbenzene (DVB) in the presence of polylactide (PLA) macro-chain-transfer agent produced a cross-linked block polymer precursor PLA-b-P(VBzCl-co-DVB) via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. A nanoscopic bicontinuous morphology containing PLA and P(VBzCl-co-DVB) microdomains was obtained as a result of polymerization-induced microphase separation. While a basic treatment of the precursor selectively removed PLA to yield a reticulated mesoporous polymer, hyper-cross-linking of the precursor by FeCl3 generated micropores in the P(VBzCl-co-DVB) microdomain via Friedel-Crafts alkylation and simultaneously degraded PLA to produce the HPP containing micropores in the mesoporous framework. The mesopore size of the HPP could be precisely controlled from 6 to 15 nm by controlling the molar mass of PLA. We demonstrate acceleration in adsorption rate in the HPP compared to a hyper-cross-linked microporous polymer.