In Situ SAXS Observations on Deformations of Unoriented Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Triblock Copolymer Grafted with Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes

摘要

Block copolymers often have unique properties compared to their homopolymer components due to their self-assembled, ordered morphologies. These properties are strongly affected by the type and orientation of the microdomains, so there have been many approaches to manipulate domain morphology that have been explored over the past twenty years. Recent interest has included the use of nanomaterials to further probe the property space of block copolymers. One such approach is to append the block copolymers using a well-defined nano-structured chemical to a given segment of the copolymer. If these nano-sized objects are on a similar length scale to the periodicity of the block copolymer, one expects the surface chemistry of the nano-structures to play a significant role in altering the thermodynamics and morphology of the copolymer matrix. A model group of nano-structured chemicals is polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS). A fully condensed POSS contains an inorganic Si-O core surrounded by various organic groups. These organic groups can be chosen to effectively tune the surface chemistry of the nanostructure and alter its interaction with the host copolymer matrix.