Quantifying the “Neutrality” of Good Solvents for Block Copolymers: Poly(styrene-b-isoprene) in Toluene, Benzene, and THF

Abstract

19 All solvents, protonated and perdeuterated, were obtained from Aldrich and used without further purification. Solutions were prepared gravimetrically by direct addition of polymer and solvent and contained in SANS cells fashioned from quartz disks as previously described. 14 The concentrations employed in this work were as follows: SI(17-19), ) 0.599 in h-toluene and 0.602 in d-toluene; SI(17-19), ) 0.600 in h-benzene and 0.600 in d-benzene; SI(16-19), ) 0.601 in d-THF and 0.599 in h-THF, where the volume fractions were calculated assuming densities of 1.05, 0.913, 0.867, 0.943, 0.874, 0.950, 0.889, and 0.985 g/mL for PS, PI, h-toluene, d-toluene, h-benzene, d-benzene, h-THF, and d-THF, respectively. Other solutions were prepared and examined, but