The self-assembly of block polymers (BPs) presents unique opportunities to design materials with attractive chemical and mechanical properties based on the ability of BPs to form periodic structures with nanoscale domain spacings. One area of recent progress in our group focuses on the behavior of tapered BPs (Figure 1) in which the segment distribution at the interface between blocks is synthetically varied to tune morphology, domain density profiles, thermal transitions as well as mechanical and transport properties. Two application targets for these materials are lithium-ion conducting membranes for batteries and nanostructured thin films for nanotemplates and barrier membranes. In the first target area, we found that the taper volume fraction and composition allow us to manipulate the self-assembly of salt-doped BPs in a well-defined manner that permits optimization of morphology and ion-content. Additionally, we found that the tapered interfaces influence the glass-transition behavior of the ion-conducting block leading to significant changes in lithium-ion transport (ion conductivity). In the second target area, we found the taper content alters the rate of self-assembly as well as the rate of island/hole formation (and ultimate island/hole size) upon thermal annealing. Additionally, using reflectivity techniques, we probed the domain density profiles as a function of taper composition and linked these profiles to changes in domain spacing and glass transition temperature. Overall, these studies show the versatility of tapering to provide a unique handle for simultaneously optimizing multiple materials properties.

Manipulating monomer segment distributions to tune self-assembly and macromolecular properties in ion-conducting block copolymer systems

2019 Spring National Meeting

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