Issue 14, 2012
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Three-dimensional observation of confined phase-separated structures in block copolymernanoparticles

Takeshi Higuchi,*a   Kiwamu Motoyoshi,b   Hidekazu Sugimori,c   Hiroshi Jinnai,acd   Hiroshi Yabu*ef  and  Masatsugu Shimomuraae  

* Corresponding authors

a WPI-Research Center, Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

b Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6 Aramaki Aza Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan

c Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Mastugasaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan

d Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering (IMCE), Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

e Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan

f Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan

Abstract

The effect of confinement on microphase-separated structures of a diblock copolymer is investigated in nanoparticles serving as a three-dimensional (3D) confinement system. We succeeded in preparing nanoparticles having various types of complex structures from hydrophobic diblock copolymers by a simple solvent evaporation method. The detailed 3D structural analysis of the nanoparticles by transmission electron microtomography (TEMT) revealed that complex structures were found only to form in the nanoparticle surface region, the thickness of which corresponded to the single-molecule length of the block copolymer in the bulk state. These results indicate that 3D confinement fundamentally affects block copolymer self-assemblies most strongly in the surface region of nanoparticles but only weakly in the central region.

Graphical abstract: Three-dimensional observation of confined phase-separated structures in block copolymer nanoparticles

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2SM07139H
Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Nov 2011
Accepted
27 Jan 2012
First published
22 Feb 2012

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 3791-3797

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Three-dimensional observation of confined phase-separated structures in block copolymer nanoparticles

T. Higuchi, K. Motoyoshi, H. Sugimori, H. Jinnai, H. Yabu and M. Shimomura, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 3791 DOI: 10.1039/C2SM07139H

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