Conjugated polymer nano- and mesoscale materials have complex structures that are highly heterogeneous and can span several orders of magnitude in length scale. Understanding the effect of molecular interactions on the emergence and evolution of mesoscale structure is of paramount importance to the guided design and development of condensed polymer materials. Such materials are traditionally prepared by solution-based post-polymerization methods utilizing solubilized, pre-formed polymers. Although such methods are convenient, they offer little control over the self-assembly process and therefore do not allow simple tuning of the photophysical properties deriving from nano- and mesoscale interactions. Here, we present a novel approach utilizing externally initiated chain-growth catalyst-transfer polymerization for generating various well defined nano- and mesoscale polythiophene supramolecular architectures in the kinetically controlled conditions. These mesoscale materials display tunable photophysical characteristics such as near-infrared fluorescence. Detailed X-ray powder diffraction, small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering studies revealed complex hierarchical organization within these mesoscale systems. The relationship between the preparation methods and reaction conditions, supramolecular structure and the resulting physical properties will also be discussed.

Conjugated polymer hierarchical nano- and mesoscale assemblies prepared by externally initiated controlled chain-growth polymerization

2019 Spring National Meeting

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