Nanomaterials (Jul 2020)

Alternating Gyroid Network Structure in an ABC Miktoarm Terpolymer Comprised of Polystyrene and Two Polydienes

  • Dimitrios Moschovas,
  • Gkreti-Maria Manesi,
  • Andreas Karydis-Messinis,
  • George Zapsas,
  • Konstantinos Ntetsikas,
  • Nikolaos E. Zafeiropoulos,
  • Alexey A. Piryazev,
  • Edwin L. Thomas,
  • Nikos Hadjichristidis,
  • Dimitri A. Ivanov,
  • Apostolos Avgeropoulos

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10081497
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 8
p. 1497

Abstract

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The synthesis, molecular and morphological characterization of a 3-miktoarm star terpolymer of polystyrene (PS, M¯n = 61.0 kg/mol), polybutadiene (PB, M¯n = 38.2 kg/mol) and polyisoprene (PI, M¯n = 29.2 kg/mol), corresponding to volume fractions (φ) of 0.46, 0.31 and 0.23 respectively, was studied. The major difference of the present material from previous ABC miktoarm stars (which is a star architecture bearing three different segments, all connected to a single junction point) with the same block components is the high 3,4-microstructure (55%) of the PI chains. The interaction parameter and the degree of polymerization of the two polydienes is sufficiently positive to create a three-phase microdomain structure as evidenced by differential scanning calorimetry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These results in combination with small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and birefringence experiments suggest a cubic tricontinuous network structure, based on the I4132 space group never reported previously for such an architecture.

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