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Highly ordered nanoporous films from supramolecular diblock copolymers with hydrogen-bonding junctions
Damien Montarnal1, Nicolas Delbosc1, Cécile Chamignon1
1Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Matériaux Polymères (UMR CNRS 5223) Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA-Lyon)-Université Lyon 1, 17 av. Jean Capelle, 69621 Villeurbanne (France).
Angewandte Chemie (International Ed. in English)
|August 4, 2015
Summary
Researchers created novel polymers that self-assemble into stable structures, forming ordered materials. These materials can be easily processed into nanoporous structures using simple washing, offering a new method for material fabrication.
Area of Science:
- Polymer Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Supramolecular Chemistry
Background:
- Developing advanced polymers with controlled architectures is crucial for creating novel materials.
- Supramolecular polymers offer unique self-assembly properties distinct from traditional covalent polymers.
- RAFT polymerization provides precise control over polymer synthesis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and synthesize efficient precursors for precise reversible-addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization.
- To create well-defined supramolecular polymers and investigate their self-assembly into block copolymers.
- To develop a straightforward method for fabricating ordered nanoporous materials from these supramolecular block copolymers.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of polymer precursors with associative groups and thiocarbonylthio moieties.
- Reversible-addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization to synthesize polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA).
- Mixing of synthesized polymers to form supramolecular diblock copolymers (BCPs).
- Thermal annealing for hierarchical self-assembly.
- Washing with protic solvents to create nanoporous structures.
Main Results:
- Efficient precursors enabled precise RAFT polymerization, yielding well-defined PS and PMMA.
- Synthesized supramolecular polymers formed highly stable diblock copolymers (BCPs) in non-polar solvents and bulk.
- Hierarchical self-assembly of BCPs via thermal annealing resulted in morphologies with excellent lateral order.
- Selective dissolution using protic solvents created well-ordered nanoporous materials without crosslinking or degradation.
Conclusions:
- The study demonstrates a novel approach to creating ordered supramolecular polymer architectures.
- The developed method provides a facile route to nanoporous materials with tunable properties.
- This work highlights the potential of supramolecular self-assembly for advanced material fabrication.
