TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating the segregation strength of microphase-separated diblock copolymers from the interfacial width
AU - Burns, Adam B.
AU - Christie, Dane
AU - Mulhearn, William D.
AU - Register, Richard A.
N1 - Funding Information:
A. B. Burns acknowledges support from the National Research Council Research Associateship Program. This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation, through the Polymers Program (DMR-1402180 to R. A. Register) and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Program through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (DMR-1420541). A. B. Burns would like to thank August W. Bosse (ExxonMobil) for insightful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
Published 2019. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
PY - 2019/7/15
Y1 - 2019/7/15
N2 - The ever-growing catalog of monomers being incorporated into block polymers affords exceptional control over phase behavior and nanoscale structure. The segregation strength, χN, is the fundamental link between the molecular-level detail and the thermodynamics. However, predicting phase behavior mandates at least one experimental measurement of χN for each pair of blocks. This typically requires access to the disordered state. We describe a method for estimating χN from small-angle X-ray scattering measurements of the interfacial width between lamellar microdomains, tx, in the microphase-separated melt. The segregation strength is determined by comparing tx to self-consistent field theory calculations of the intrinsic interfacial width, ti, as a function of the mean-field χN. The method is validated using a series of independent experimental measurements of tx and χN, measured via the order–disorder transition temperature, TODT. The average absolute relative difference between χN calculated from tx and the value calculated from TODT is a modest 11%. Corrections for nonplanarity of the interfaces are investigated but do not improve the agreement between the experiments and theory. Published 2019. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019
AB - The ever-growing catalog of monomers being incorporated into block polymers affords exceptional control over phase behavior and nanoscale structure. The segregation strength, χN, is the fundamental link between the molecular-level detail and the thermodynamics. However, predicting phase behavior mandates at least one experimental measurement of χN for each pair of blocks. This typically requires access to the disordered state. We describe a method for estimating χN from small-angle X-ray scattering measurements of the interfacial width between lamellar microdomains, tx, in the microphase-separated melt. The segregation strength is determined by comparing tx to self-consistent field theory calculations of the intrinsic interfacial width, ti, as a function of the mean-field χN. The method is validated using a series of independent experimental measurements of tx and χN, measured via the order–disorder transition temperature, TODT. The average absolute relative difference between χN calculated from tx and the value calculated from TODT is a modest 11%. Corrections for nonplanarity of the interfaces are investigated but do not improve the agreement between the experiments and theory. Published 2019. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019
KW - block copolymers
KW - microphase separation
KW - polymer interfaces
KW - self-consistent field theory
KW - small-angle X-ray scattering
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U2 - 10.1002/polb.24848
DO - 10.1002/polb.24848
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067413151
SN - 0887-6266
VL - 57
SP - 932
EP - 940
JO - Journal of Polymer Science, Polymer Letters Edition
JF - Journal of Polymer Science, Polymer Letters Edition
IS - 14
ER -