Highly Ordered Cylinder Morphologies with 10 nm Scale Periodicity in Biomass-Based Block Copolymers

Takuya Isono, Brian J. Ree, Kenji Tajima, Redouane Borsali, Toshifumi Satoh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Microphase-separated structures of block copolymers (BCPs) have attracted considerable attention for their potential application in the bottom-up fabrication of 10 nm scale nanostructured materials. To realize sustainable development within this field, the creation of novel BCP materials from renewable biomass resources is of fundamental interest. Thus, we herein focused on maltoheptaose-b-poly(δ-decanolactone)-b-maltoheptaose (MH-b-PDL-b-MH) as a sustainable alternative for nanostructure-forming BCPs, in which both constitutional blocks can be derived from renewable biomass resources, in the case, δ-decanolactone and amylose. Well-defined MH-b-PDL-b-MHs with varying PDL lengths were synthesized through a combination of controlled/living ring-opening polymerization and the click reaction. The prepared MH-b-PDL-b-MHs successfully self-assembled into highly ordered hexagonal cylindrical structures with a domain-spacing of ∼12-14 nm in both the bulk and thin film states. Interestingly, the as-cast thin films of MH-b-PDL-b-MHs (with PDL lengths of 9K and 13K) form horizontal cylinders, with thermal annealing (180 °C, 30 min) resulting in a drastic change in the domain orientation from horizontal to vertical. Thus, the results presented herein demonstrated that the combination of oligosaccharides and biomass-derived hydrophobic polymers appears promising for the sustainable development of nanotechnology and related fields.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)428-437
Number of pages10
JournalMacromolecules
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 23 Jan 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Highly Ordered Cylinder Morphologies with 10 nm Scale Periodicity in Biomass-Based Block Copolymers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this