Rapid Creation and Morphological Analysis of ABC Bottlebrush Triblock Terpolymer Libraries

Project Description

Bottlebrush block polymers with side chains densely grafted on a backbone have attracted much attention, in part due to the large domain spacing (up to several hundred nanometers), which is virtually never achieved with flexible linear block polymers (typically d ≤ 50 nm). These extended morphologies are promising for applications such as photonic crystals. Recent studies indicate opportunities for complex morphologies in bottlebrush block polymers, thus motivating additional exploration of phase behavior. A comprehensive investigation of phase behavior requires the preparation of numerous ABC bottlebrush triblocks covering a large compositional space, which is expensive and time-consuming using conventional synthesis, purification, and characterization methods. The goal of this project is to develop an efficient methodology to generate libraries of ABC bottlebrush triblock terpolymers and systematically explore the associated bulk morphologies.

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