Fabrication of polymeric nano‐objects using PS₅P2VP₅ heteroarm star copolymers as building elements

Abstract

This work is focused on the self-organization of an heteroarm star copolymer consisting of 5 polystyrene and 5 poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) arms emanated from a poly(divinyl benzene) core and the chemical stabilization of the resulting supramolecular nano-objects in the bulk and in solution. To tune various morphologies from the same star copolymer, selective and nonselective solvent media were used. Theö pyridine moieties, forming distinct P2VP nanodomains in the copolymer nanostructures, were selectively crosslinked using 1,4-dibromobutane under mild conditions to yield stabilized polymeric ''hairy'' nano-objects, dispersible in hot tetrahydrofuran. The morphology of the resulting nanostructures was studied using scanning electron microscopy and was found to be strongly dependent on various factors, such as the self-assembly/casting conditions, the total time of the crosslinking reaction, and the dispersion procedure.