Well-Ordered Nanonetwork Metamaterials from Block Copolymer Templated Syntheses

Through the morphological evolution to give highly optimized complex architectures at different length scales, fine-tuned textures for specific functions in living organisms can be achieved in nature such as a bone core with very complicated porous architecture to attain a significant structural efficiency attributed to delicately structured ligaments and density gradients. As inspired by nature, materials with periodic network structures (i.e., well-defined porous textures) in the nanoscale are appealing and promising for innovative properties. Biomimicking from nature, organic and/or inorganic nanonetworks can be synthetically fabricated, giving broadness and effectiveness when tuning the desired properties. Metamaterials are materials whose effective properties do not result from the bulk behavior of the constituent materials but rather mainly from their deliberate structuring. The performances of fabricating metamaterials will depend on the control of size, shape, order, and orientation of the forming textures. One of the appealing textures for the deliberate structuring is network architecture. Network materials possess self-supporting frameworks, open-cell character, high porosity, and large specific surface area, giving specific functions and complexity for diverse applications. As demonstrated by recent studies, exceptional mechanical performances such as negative thermal expansion, negative Poisson's ratio, and twisting under uniaxial forces can be achieved by the effect of the deliberate structuring with nanonetwork textures. In contrast to a top-down approach, a bottom-up approach is cost-effective, and also it can overcome the size limitation to reach nanoscale fabrication. It can be foreseen that network metamaterials with a feature size of tens of nanometers (referred as nanonetwork metamaterials) may provide new comprehension of the structure and property relationships for various materials. The self-assembly of block copolymers (BCPs) is one of the most used methods to build up well-ordered nanostructured phases from a bottom-up approach with precise control of size, shape, and orientation in the thin films for realistic applications. In this account, we summarize recent advancements in the fabrication of nanohybrids and nanoporous materials with well-ordered nanonetwork textures even with controlled helicity by combining block copolymer self-assembly and templated syntheses for mechanical and optical applications with superior properties beyond nature as metamaterials as well as chiral metamaterials with new properties for chiroptic applications such as chiral plasmonics, beam splitter, and negative refraction. The description of the fundamental facets of a nonconventional structure-property relationship with the characters of metamaterials and the state-of-the-art methodologies to fabricate nanonetworks using block copolymer self-assembly will stimulate research activities for the development of nanonetwork metamaterials with exceptional individual and multifunctional properties for futuristic devices.