Morphology Evolution of Polymeric Assemblies Regulated with Fluoro-Containing Mesogen in Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly

Abstract

Mesogen-containing amphiphilic block copolymers have shown extremely abundant self-assembly behaviors because of the liquid crystalline (LC) alignment within the assemblies. However, development of an understanding of the self-assembly behaviors of these amphiphilic LC polymers is still constrained by the low assembly concentration and complex kinetic effects. Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is a powerful technique to prepare polymer assemblies at high solids content with good repeatability. Taking advantage of PISA, we systematically study the self-assembly behaviors of a series of mesogen-containing triblock copolymers poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(benzyl methacrylate)-b-poly(2-perfluorooctylethyl methacrylate) (PDMA-b-PBzMA-b-PFMA), which are prepared by seeded reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer dispersion polymerization of FMA with PDMA-b-PBzMA micelles or vesicles as the seeds. When PDMA-b-PBzMA micelles are used, the morphology of the PDMA-b-PBzMA-b-PFMA as...