Nanostructures and nanoporosity in thermoset epoxy blends with an amphiphilic polyisoprene-block-poly(4-vinyl pyridine) reactive diblock copolymer

Generation of One-Dimensional Fibrous Polyethylene Nanocrystals in Epoxy Thermosets

The one-dimensional (1D) polyethylene (PE) nanocrystals were generated in epoxy thermosets via crystallization-driven self-assembly. Toward this end, an ABA triblock copolymer composed of PE midblock and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) endblocks was synthesized via the ring opening metathesis polymerization followed by hydrogenation approach. The nanostructured thermosets were obtained via a two-step curing approach, i.e., the samples were cured first at 80 °C and then at 150 °C. Under this condition, the one-dimensional (1D) fibrous PE microdomains with the lengths up to a couple of micrometers were created in epoxy thermosets. In contrast, only the spherical PE microdomains were generated while the thermosets were cured via a one-step curing at 150 °C. By the use of the triblock copolymer, the generation of 1D fibrous PE nanocrystals is attributable to crystallization-driven self-assembly mechanism whereas that of the spherical PE microdomains follows traditional self-assembly mechanism. Compared to the thermosets containing the spherical PE microdomains, the thermosets containing the 1D fibrous PE nanocrystals displayed quite different thermal and mechanical properties. More importantly, the nanostructured thermosets containing the 1D fibrous PE nanocrystals displayed the fracture toughness much higher than those only containing the spherical PE nanocrystals; the K_IC value was even three times as that of control epoxy.

Regulating block copolymer phases via selective homopolymers

The phase behavior of strongly segregated AB diblock copolymer and selective C homopolymer blends is examined theoretically using a combination of strong stretching theory (SST) and self-consistent field theory (SCFT). The C-homopolymer is immiscible with the B-blocks but strongly attractive with the A-blocks. The effect of homopolymer content on the order-order phase transitions is analyzed. It is observed that, for AB diblock copolymers with majority A-blocks, the addition of the C-homopolymers results in lamellar to cylindrical to spherical phase transitions because of the A/C complexation. For diblock copolymers with minor A-blocks, adding C-homopolymers leads to transitions from spherical or cylindrical morphology with A-rich core to lamellae to inverted cylindrical and spherical morphologies with B-rich core. The results from analytical SST and numerical SCFT are in good agreement within most regions of the phase diagram. But the deviation becomes more obvious when the composition of A-blocks is too small and the content of added C-homopolymers is large enough, where the SCFT predicts a narrow co-existence region between different ordered phases. Furthermore, it is found that the phase behavior of the system is insensitive to the molecular weight of C-homopolymer.