Long‐Range Ordered Double Gyroid Structures via Solution Casting from Poly(2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl methacrylate)‐block‐poly(2‐vinyl pyridine)

Abstract

A highly conformable long‐range ordered double gyroid structure with the space group Ia3d is obtained by the self‐assembly of a poly(2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl methacrylate)‐b‐poly(2‐vinyl pyridine) (PTFEMA‐b‐P2VP) diblock copolymer through solution casting. 9 different PTFEMA‐b‐P2VP samples are synthesized, each of which has a different mass fraction to others, with the product containing 47 wt% of PTFEMA exhibiting a double gyroid structure. Analysis of the transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images of this product have revealed that the structural planes of the obtained 3D sample are in good agreement with the typical (211), (110), and (111) planes of the Ia3d space group, which is also supported by small angle X‐ray scattering spectroscopy, therefore confirming that the samples formed a long‐range double gyroid structure over a large area.

Tunable Thin Film Periodicities by Controlling the Orientation of Cylindrical Domains in Side Chain Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymers

“…In the thiol-epoxy reaction, PGMA was mixed with approximately 1.5 times of excessive thiols in THF solution loaded with catalytic amount of LiOH at 30 °C. LiOH is considered as the optimized catalyst as quantitative 4 International Journal of Polymer Science conversions are obtained at a catalyst loading over a few hours' reaction time under mild reaction temperatures. The synthesized homopolymers, including homo-P4FMA, homo-P6FMA, and homo-P8FMA were characterized by NMR, SEC, DSC, and WAXD (Figures S1-S5, SI) and summarized (Table S1, SI).…”

“…Block copolymers (BCPs) are widely studied due to their capability of self-assembling into a variety of long-ranged structure. The commonly observed morphologies in coil-coil flexible diblock copolymers include sphere, cylinder, gyroid, and lamellae, depending on the specific volume fraction of blocks [1][2][3][4][5]. This unique feature resulting from self-assembly behaviors reveals potential applications in perspective nanofabrication in the semi-conductor industry [6,7].…”