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Science 19 July 1996:
Vol. 273. no. 5273, pp. 343 - 346
DOI: 10.1126/science.273.5273.343
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Reports

Self-Assembled Smectic Phases in Rod-Coil Block Copolymers

J. T. Chen, E. L. Thomas, * C. K. Ober, * G.-p. Mao

Rod-coil block copolymers are self-assembling polymers that combine the physics of orientational ordering of rodlike polymers and the microphase separation of coil-coil block copolymers. Several new solid-state morphologies were observed in a series of anionically synthesized model poly(hexyl isocyanate-b-styrene) rod-coil diblock copolymers examined by transmission electron microscopy and selected-area electron diffraction. The rod-coils formed smectic C-like and O-like morphologies with domain sizes ranging from tens of nanometers to almost 1 micrometer. Both structural and orientational changes were found for increasing rod volume fractions. In addition, some morphologies exhibited spontaneous long-range orientational order over many tens of micrometers.

J. T. Chen and E. L. Thomas, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
C. K. Ober and G.-p. Mao, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)