Self-Assembly of Low-Molecular-Weight Asymmetric Linear Triblock Terpolymers: How Low Can We Go?

The synthesis of two (2) novel triblock terpolymers of the ABC type and one (1) of the BAC type, where A, B and C are chemically different segments, such as polystyrene (PS), poly(butadiene) (PB_1,4) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), is reported; moreover, their corresponding molecular and bulk characterizations were performed. Very low dimensions are evident from the characterization in bulk from transmission electron microscopy studies, verified by small-angle X-ray data, since sub-16 nm domains are evident in all three cases. The self-assembly results justify the assumptions that the high Flory-Huggins parameter, χ, even in low molecular weights, leads to significantly well-ordered structures, despite the complexity of the systems studied. Furthermore, it is the first time that a structure/properties relationship was studied for such systems in bulk, potentially leading to prominent applications in nanotechnology and nanopatterning, for as low as sub-10 nm thin-film manipulations.