Abstract
Block copolymers (BCPs) can create various morphology by self-assembly in bulk or film. Recently, using BCPs in confined geometries such as thin film (one-dimension), cylindrical template (two-dimension), or emulsion droplet (three-dimension), nanostructured BCP particles have been prepared, in which unique nanostructures of the BCP are formed via solvent annealing process and can be controlled depending on molecular weight ratio and interaction parameter of the BCPs, and droplet size. Moreover, by tuning interfacial property of the BCP particles, anisotropic particles with unique nanostructures have been prepared. Furthermore, for practical application such as drug delivery system, sensor, self-healing, metamaterial, and optoelectronic device, functional nanoparticles can be incorporated inside BCP particles. In this article, we summarize recent progress on the production of structured BCP particles and composite particles with metallic nanoparticles.
Highlights
Block copolymers (BCPs) have been widely used as templates for the nanostructured materials, since the BCPs can self-assemble to a variety of nanoscale morphologies like spheres, cylinders, and lamellar depending on their composition, volume fraction and molecular weight (Bates and Fredrickson, 1990; Hawker and Russell, 2005; Xiong et al, 2009; Mai and Eisenberg, 2012)
Using BCPs in confined geometries such as aerosol or emulsion droplets, many nanostructured BCP particles have been prepared after solvent annealing process
Complex architecture of BCP such as star shape or multi-BCPs would be applied into these BCP particles
Summary
Block copolymers (BCPs) have been widely used as templates for the nanostructured materials, since the BCPs can self-assemble to a variety of nanoscale morphologies like spheres, cylinders, and lamellar depending on their composition, volume fraction and molecular weight (Bates and Fredrickson, 1990; Hawker and Russell, 2005; Xiong et al, 2009; Mai and Eisenberg, 2012). The key to the use of BCPs for the complex nanostructures is to control the orientation and lateral order of the microdomains in the thin films. Cavicchi and Russell (2007) reported a significant improvement on the lateral ordering of poly(isoprene-block-lactide) (PI-b-PLA) by solvent annealing in the casting film (Cavicchi and Russell, 2007). Besides the solvent annealing method, the orientation of BCP nanostructures can be controlled by changing the surface properties of the substrate or the gap between the two substrates (Huang et al, 1998). The periodic patterned substrates have been used to enhance or control the lateral order of microdomains in BCPs (Figure 1A) (Bita et al, 2008). In the case of cylindrical pores in anodized alumina oxide (AAO) membranes, various helical
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