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Murphy E, Zhang C, Bates CM, Hawker CJ. Chromatographic Separation: A Versatile Strategy to Prepare Discrete and Well-Defined Polymer Libraries. Acc Chem Res 2024; 57:1202-1213. [PMID: 38530881 PMCID: PMC11025024 DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.4c00059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2024] [Revised: 03/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
ConspectusThe preparation of discrete and well-defined polymers is an emerging strategy for emulating the remarkable precision achieved by macromolecular synthesis in nature. Although modern controlled polymerization techniques have unlocked access to a cornucopia of materials spanning a broad range of monomers, molecular weights, and architectures, the word "controlled" is not to be confused with "perfect". Indeed, even the highest-fidelity polymerization techniques─yielding molar mass dispersities in the vicinity of Đ = 1.05─unavoidably create a considerable degree of structural and/or compositional dispersity due to the statistical nature of chain growth. Such dispersity impacts many of the properties that researchers seek to control in the design of soft materials.The development of strategies to minimize or entirely eliminate dispersity and access molecularly precise polymers therefore remains a key contemporary challenge. While significant advances have been made in the realm of iterative synthetic methods that construct oligomers with an exact molecular weight, head-to-tail connectivity, and even stereochemistry via small-molecule organic chemistry, as the word "iterative" suggests, these techniques involve manually propagating monomers one reaction at a time, often with intervening protection and deprotection steps. As a result, these strategies are time-consuming, difficult to scale, and remain limited to lower molecular weights. The focus of this Account is on an alternative strategy that is more accessible to the general scientific community because of its simplicity, versatility, and affordability: chromatography. Researchers unfamiliar with the intricacies of synthesis may recall being exposed to chromatography in an undergraduate chemistry lab. This operationally simple, yet remarkably powerful, technique is most commonly encountered in the purification of small molecules through their selective (differential) adsorption to a column packed with a low-cost stationary phase, usually silica. Because the requisite equipment is readily available and the actual separation takes little time (on the order of 1 h), chromatography is used extensively in small-molecule chemistry throughout industry and academia alike. It is, therefore, perhaps surprising that similar types of chromatography are not more widely leveraged in the field of polymer science as well.Here, we discuss recent advances in using chromatography to control the structure and properties of polymeric materials. Emphasis is placed on the utility of an adsorption-based mechanism that separates polymers based on polarity and composition at tractable (gram) scales for materials science, in contrast to size exclusion, which is extremely common but typically analyzes very small quantities of a sample (∼1 mg) and is limited to separating by molar mass. Key concepts that are highlighted include (1) the separation of low-molecular-weight homopolymers into discrete oligomers (Đ = 1.0) with precise chain lengths and (2) the efficient fractionation of block copolymers into high-quality and widely varied libraries for accelerating materials discovery. In summary, the authors hope to convey the exciting possibilities in polymer science afforded by chromatography as a scalable, versatile, and even automated technique that unlocks new avenues of exploration into well-defined materials for a diverse assortment of researchers with different training and expertise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth
A. Murphy
- Materials
Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Department of Chemical
Engineering, andMaterials Department, University of California
Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Cheng Zhang
- Materials
Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Department of Chemical
Engineering, andMaterials Department, University of California
Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Australian
Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and Centre for Advanced
Imaging University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
| | - Christopher M. Bates
- Materials
Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Department of Chemical
Engineering, andMaterials Department, University of California
Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Craig J. Hawker
- Materials
Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Department of Chemical
Engineering, andMaterials Department, University of California
Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara, California 93106, United States
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Lee D, Lee J, Park J, Chang T. Orientation of Microphase in Polystyrene- b-polyisoprene Thin Film under Solvent Vapor Annealing. Macromolecules 2020. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.0c01017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Zhang C, Bates MW, Geng Z, Levi AE, Vigil D, Barbon SM, Loman T, Delaney KT, Fredrickson GH, Bates CM, Whittaker AK, Hawker CJ. Rapid Generation of Block Copolymer Libraries Using Automated Chromatographic Separation. J Am Chem Soc 2020; 142:9843-9849. [PMID: 32421319 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c04028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
A versatile and scalable strategy is reported for the rapid generation of block copolymer libraries spanning a wide range of compositions starting from a single parent copolymer. This strategy employs automated and operationally simple chromatographic separation that is demonstrated to be applicable to a variety of block copolymer chemistries on multigram scales with excellent mass recovery. The corresponding phase diagrams exhibit increased compositional resolution compared to those traditionally constructed via multiple, individual block copolymer syntheses. Increased uniformity and lower dispersity of the chromatographic libraries lead to differences in the location of order-order transitions and observable morphologies, highlighting the influence of dispersity on the self-assembly of block copolymers. Significantly, this separation technique greatly simplifies the exploration of block copolymer phase space across a range of compositions, monomer pairs, and molecular weights (up to 50000 amu), producing materials with increased control and homogeneity when compared to conventional strategies.
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Jung J, Lee J, Park HW, Chang T, Sugimori H, Jinnai H. Epitaxial Phase Transition between Double Gyroid and Cylinder Phase in Diblock Copolymer Thin Film. Macromolecules 2014. [DOI: 10.1021/ma5020275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jueun Jung
- Division
of Advanced Materials Science and Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 790-784, Korea
| | - Junyoung Lee
- Division
of Advanced Materials Science and Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 790-784, Korea
| | - Hae-Woong Park
- Division
of Advanced Materials Science and Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 790-784, Korea
| | - Taihyun Chang
- Division
of Advanced Materials Science and Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 790-784, Korea
| | - Hidekazu Sugimori
- Department
of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Science
and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Jinnai
- Department
of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Science
and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan
- Institute
for Materials Chemistry and Engineering (IMCE), CE80, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
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Malik MI, Pasch H. Novel developments in the multidimensional characterization of segmented copolymers. Prog Polym Sci 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2013.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Ahn S, Im K, Chang T, Chambon P, Fernyhough CM. 2D-LC Characterization of Comb-Shaped Polymers Using Isotope Effect. Anal Chem 2011; 83:4237-42. [DOI: 10.1021/ac2005907] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Seonyoung Ahn
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea
| | - Kyuhyun Im
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea
| | - Taihyun Chang
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea
| | - Pierre Chambon
- Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S3 7HF, United Kingdom
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Synthesis and characterization of polystyrene-b-polyisoprene-b-poly(methylmethacrylate) triblock copolymer. Eur Polym J 2011. [DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2010.09.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Abstract
Block copolymers (BCs) are well-known building blocks for the creation of a large variety of nanostructured materials or objects through a dynamic assembly stage which can be either autonomous or guided by an external force. Today's nanotechnologies require sharp control of the overall architecture from the nanoscale to the macroscale. BCs enable this dynamic assembly through all the scales, from few aggregated polymer chains to large bulk polymer materials. Since the discovery of controlled methods to polymerize monomers with different functionalities, a broad diversity of BCs exists, giving rise to many different nanoobjects and nanostructured materials. This chapter will explore the potentialities of block copolymer chains to be assembled through dynamic interactions either in solution or in bulk.
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Jung J, Park HW, Lee S, Lee H, Chang T, Matsunaga K, Jinnai H. Effect of film thickness on the phase behaviors of diblock copolymer thin film. ACS NANO 2010; 4:3109-16. [PMID: 20499924 DOI: 10.1021/nn1003309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
A phase diagram was constructed for a polystyrene-block-polyisoprene (PS-b-PI, M(W) = 32 700, f(PI) = 0.670) in thin films on Si wafer as a function of film thickness over the range of 150-2410 nm (7-107L(0) (L(0): domain spacing)). The PS-b-PI exhibits a variety of ordered phases from hexagonally perforated lamellar (HPL) via double gyroid (DG) to hexagonally packed cylinder (HEX) before going to the disordered (DIS) phase upon heating. The morphology of the PS-b-PI in thin film was investigated by grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and transmission electron microtomography. In thin film, the phase transition temperature is difficult to be determined unequivocally with in situ heating processes since the phase transition is slow and two phases coexist over a wide temperature range. Therefore, in an effort to find an "equilibrium" phase, we determined the long-term stable phase formed after cooling the film from the DIS phase to a target temperature and annealing for 24 h at the temperature. The temperature windows of stable ordered phases are strongly influenced by the film thickness. As the film thickness decreases, the temperature window of layer-like structures such as HPL and HEX becomes wider, whereas that of the DG stable region decreases. For the films thinner than 160 nm (8L(0)), only the HPL phase was found. In the films exhibiting DG phase, a perforated layer structure at the free surface was found, which gradually converts to the internal DG structure. The relief of interfacial tension by preferential wetting appears to play an important role in controlling the morphology in very thin films.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jueun Jung
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 790-784, Korea
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Kim Y, Ahn S, Chang T. Isotopic Effect in the Separation of Polystyrene by Normal Phase and Reversed Phase Liquid Chromatography. Anal Chem 2010; 82:1509-14. [DOI: 10.1021/ac902622t] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Youngtak Kim
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Korea
| | - Seonyoung Ahn
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Korea
| | - Taihyun Chang
- Department of Chemistry and Division of Advanced Materials Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Korea
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