A Modular Approach Towards ABC Bottlebrush Block Terpolymer Generation

Project Description

A quantitative understanding of factors influencing the self-assembly of block polymers can propel the bottom-up design of nanostructured materials with a variety of mesoscale morphologies. Among these, 3D network (NET) phases are particularly exciting as their interpenetrating domains allow for the independent tuning of transport and mechanical properties, resulting in a material with property combinations superior to the sum of its individual components. The formation of NET phases, however, is currently limited by narrow block polymer composition windows, a limited scope of accessible monomer chemistries, and an inability to access larger unit cells ( > 100 nm). These limitations motivate the need to identify design principles that drive the self-assembly of polymeric materials into target morphologies. This work focuses on developing a modular ABC triblock bottlebrush polymer, where the composition of the repeat unit of one block can be selectively varied. We employ tert-butyl methacrylate as a pH responsive monomer, allowing for systematic variation of the interaction parameter with respect to the other two blocks while keeping all other polymeric variables constant.

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