科研之友
微信
新浪微博
Facebook
分享链接
摘要
The ability to direct polymer structure on the nanometer scale has provided access to enhanced material properties that may be tailored to accommodate a growing number of advanced biological and industrial applications. A promising method of generating nanostructure in organic polymers uses self-assembling lyotropic liquid crystalline (LLC) mesophases is templates for polymerization. Unfortunately, thermodynamically driven phase separation often prevents polymer morphology from being precisely controlled. As the demand for polymers with accurately engineered properties increases, a detailed understanding of the phase separation process is needed to control the nanostructure and properties of LLC templated polymers. In this study, photopolymerization kinetics are utilized to identify phase separation events occurring during the photopolymerization of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate and hexanediol diacrylate monomers templated in the normal hexagonal or lamellar LLC mesophases. Discontinuities are found in the polymerization rate of anisotropic polymers at several double bond conversions that are not present in the rate profiles of isotropic controls. The polymer morphology was subsequently characterized at particular conversions using small angle X-ray scattering. Changes in polymer nanostructure occur at double bond conversions that coincide with the observed rate discontinuities. These results demonstrate that photopolymerization kinetics can be used as a probe to monitor the evolution of polymer nanostructure during polymerization and optimize the conditions governing the control of polymer morphology to enhance properties dependent on nanostructure.
- 出版日期2010-10-26
