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Well Ordered Polymer Melts from Blends of Disordered Triblock Copolymer Surfactants and Functional Homopolymers

Published

Author(s)

Vijay Tirumala, Alvin Romang, Sumit Agarwal, Eric K. Lin, J J. Watkins

Abstract

Here, we report that well ordered, processible polymer melts with periodic nanostructures can be obtained in bulk quantity by simple blending of commercially available triblock copolymer surfactants with a series of commodity homopolymers that selectively associate with one of blocks through hydrogen bonding. While the neat surfactants are disordered in the melt, scattering measurements indicate that the blends undergo a disorder-to-order transition to yield stable microphase separated structures. The results are general, and suggest a low cost, high volume strategy to produce ordered spherical, cylindrical, or lamellar microphase separated polymer melts for commercial use.
Citation
Advanced Materials
Volume
20

Keywords

blends, block copolymer surfactants, melts, neutron scattering, pluronics, x-ray scattering

Citation

Tirumala, V. , Romang, A. , Agarwal, S. , Lin, E. and Watkins, J. (2008), Well Ordered Polymer Melts from Blends of Disordered Triblock Copolymer Surfactants and Functional Homopolymers, Advanced Materials, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=852721 (Accessed March 19, 2024)
Created April 4, 2008, Updated February 19, 2017