Self-Seeding Procedure for Obtaining Stacked Block Copolymer Lamellar Crystals in Solution

Bessif, Brahim; Pfohl, Thomas; Reiter, Günter

doi:10.3390/polym13111676

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessArticle

Self-Seeding Procedure for Obtaining Stacked Block Copolymer Lamellar Crystals in Solution

Brahim Bessif

¹,

Thomas Pfohl

¹ and

Günter Reiter

^1,2,*

Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF), Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Holger Schmalz

Polymers 2021, 13(11), 1676; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13111676

Received: 4 May 2021 / Revised: 17 May 2021 / Accepted: 18 May 2021 / Published: 21 May 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Block Copolymers with Crystallizable Blocks: Synthesis, Self-Assembly and Applications)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

We examined the formation of self-seeded platelet-like crystals from polystyrene-block-polyethylene oxide (PS-b-PEO) diblock copolymers in toluene as a function of polymer concentration (

c

), crystallization temperature (

T_{C}

), and self-seeding temperature (

T_{SS}

). We showed that the number (

N

) of platelet-like crystals and their mean lateral size (

L

) can be controlled through a self-seeding procedure. As (homogeneous) nucleation was circumvented by the self-seeding procedure,

N

did not depend on

T_{C}

N

increased linearly with

c

and decayed exponentially with

T_{SS}

but was not affected significantly by the time the sample was kept at

T_{SS}

. The solubility limit of PS-b-PEO in toluene (

c

*), which was derived from the linear extrapolation of

N (c)

\to

0 and from the total deposited mass of the platelets per area

(M_{C} (c) \to 0

), depended on

T_{C}

. We have also demonstrated that at low

N

, stacks consisting of a (large) number (

η

) of uniquely oriented lamellae can be achieved. At a given

T_{C}

L

was controlled by

N

and

η

as well as by

∆ c = c - c^{*}

. Thus, besides being able to predict size and number of platelet-like crystals, the self-seeding procedure also allowed control of the number of stacked lamellae in these crystals. View Full-Text

Keywords: crystal morphologies; polymer crystallization; nucleation mechanism; scaling relations

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Supplementary Material

Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 750 KiB)

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Bessif, B.; Pfohl, T.; Reiter, G. Self-Seeding Procedure for Obtaining Stacked Block Copolymer Lamellar Crystals in Solution. Polymers 2021, 13, 1676. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13111676

AMA Style

Bessif B, Pfohl T, Reiter G. Self-Seeding Procedure for Obtaining Stacked Block Copolymer Lamellar Crystals in Solution. Polymers. 2021; 13(11):1676. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13111676

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bessif, Brahim, Thomas Pfohl, and Günter Reiter. 2021. "Self-Seeding Procedure for Obtaining Stacked Block Copolymer Lamellar Crystals in Solution" Polymers 13, no. 11: 1676. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13111676

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Self-Seeding Procedure for Obtaining Stacked Block Copolymer Lamellar Crystals in Solution

Abstract

Supplementary Material

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI