Nanostructured polymers can play important roles in technologies ranging from chemical separations to gas adsorption to water ultrafiltration. The three most important attributes of a nanostructured polymer are the feature sizes, the morphology, and the chemical/physical nature of the various nanodomains. The use of block polymers to achieve precision control of these aspects is one of the most powerful approaches. The careful preparation of block polymers with tuned compositions, chemistries, and architectures allows one to molecularly program these hybrid materials to adopt structures that are adapted to specific technologies. Recently, we have been focused on the in situ preparation of block polymers that self-assemble during the polymerization process to give nanostructured polymers in situ with controlled attributes in a direct and simple manner. This approach also facilitates the formation of bicontinuous morphologies with remarkably small domain sizes. In this talk I will describe how we use this strategy to generate nanostructured and crosslinked polymers that can be employed in applications requiring combinations of mechanical and transport properties specific to membrane separations.

Nanostructured membranes by in situ block polymer synthesis

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.