Explosive dissolution and trapping of block copolymer seed crystallites.

ABSTRACT: Enhanced control over crystallization-driven self-assembly (CDSA) of coil-crystalline block copolymers has led to the formation of intricate structures with well-defined morphology and dimensions. While approaches to build those sophisticated structures may strongly differ from each other, they all share a key cornerstone: a polymer crystallite. Here we report a trapping technique that enables tracking of the change in length of one-dimensional (1D) polymer crystallites as they are annealed in solution at different temperatures. Using the similarities between 1D polymeric micelles and bottle-brush polymers, we developed a model explaining how the dissolving crystallites reach a critical size independent of the annealing temperature, and then explode in a cooperative process involving the r

SUBMITTER: Guerin G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5861044 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature