Comparison of poly(ethylene oxide) crystal orientations and crystallization behaviors in nano-confined cylinders constructed by a poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene diblock copolymer and a blend of poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene and polystyrene

Crystallization of polymer chains confined in nanodomains

“…3 (e.g., the Avrami exponent n = 1 is deduced from this crystallization mechanism). Many experimental results for the crystallization in hard nanospheres or nanocylinders support this unique crystallization [20,21,23,24,26,29]. The crystal orientation of block chains confined in hard nanocylinders or nanolamellae has been examined as a function of nanodomain size and crystallization temperature T c .…”

“…Consequently, the crystalline block crystallizes within hard (or glassy) nanodomains to form crystalline microdomain structures [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. It is generally observed for the crystallization in hard nanodomains that the melting temperature is considerably low and the final crystallinity is extremely small as compared with the case in the crystalline lamellar morphology formed by break-out crystallization (Fig.…”

Orientation of Syndiotactic Polystyrene Crystallized in Cylindrical Nanopores

“…In recent years, crystallization of polymers under cylindrical confinement of organic [1][2][3][4][5] or inorganic [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] templates has been widely investigated. Strong phaseseparated crystalline-amorphous diblock copolymers have been employed to construct hexagonal nanocylindrical structures to investigate the crystallization of the crystallizable blocks confined in the continuous amorphous matrix.…”

“…Strong phaseseparated crystalline-amorphous diblock copolymers have been employed to construct hexagonal nanocylindrical structures to investigate the crystallization of the crystallizable blocks confined in the continuous amorphous matrix. It was found that crystallites confined in nanocylindrical domains resulted from phase separation in block copolymer films exhibit a preferred orientation, [1,2] and the orientation of the crystallites, defined by the chain direction with respect to the axial direction of the nanocylinder, depends on the crystallization temperature, which changes from random to a uniformly perpendicular orientation when the crystallization temperature is elevated. [2] However, the diameters of the cylindrical domains are generally in the range of 5-20 nm [2,3] as controlled by the phase segregation strength and molecular weights of the two blocks, which makes it difficult to investigate the effects of the diameter of the cylinder on the crystallization under confinement over a broader range.…”

Morphology of Semicrystalline Diblock Copolymer Thin Films upon Directional Solvent Vapor Flow

“…[43] Several reflections in the reciprocal space have been previously identified by rotating a highly ordered PEO crystal around its c-axis. [43,44] The strongest (120) reflection has an angle of 90° with respect to the c-axis and a d-spacing of 0.463 nm. The GIXRD Bragg peak we have observed in case of the 65 nm thick film is thus assigned for the (120) plane of an oriented PEO monoclinic crystal and suggests that the c-axis of the unit cell is oriented perpendicular to the film surface.…”