Zhu, Guo-Dong; Yin, Yu-Rong; Li, Zhen-Nan; Qiu, Ya-Yu; Yi, Zhuan; Gao, Cong-Jie
Organic acids interacting with block copolymers have broadened the window that retains isoporous structures
Evaporation is significantly important for the preparation of isoporous membranes from self-assembly and non-solvent induced phase separation (SNIPS). Unfortunately, the time of solvent evaporation that retains isoporous structures is usually rather short, which causes many challenges to fabricate membranes with repeatable and controllable isoporous structures. In the current work, we…
Light-induced healing in azobenzene bridged silsesquioxanes
Galante, María J.; Zucchi, Ileana A.; Oyanguren, Patricia A.; Sáiz, Luciana M.
Intrinsic healable polymers are materials capable of repairing itself through its chemical nature, in order to improve stability and durability and to restore the lost functionalities or properties. In this study, azobenzene (AZO) moieties were incorporated into a previously reported bridged silsesquioxane based on the reaction of isocyanatepropyltriethoxysilane (IPTS) with…
Thermoreversible crystallization-driven aggregation of diblock copolymer nanoparticles in mineral oil
Derry, Matthew J.; Mykhaylyk, Oleksandr O.; Ryan, Anthony J.; Armes, Steven P.
A poly(behenyl methacrylate)37 (PBeMA37) macromolecular chain transfer agent is utilized for the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization of benzyl methacrylate (BzMA) directly in mineral oil at 90 °C. Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) occurs under these conditions, yielding a series of sterically-stabilized PBeMA37-PBzMA …
How cyclic chain topology can reduce the crystallization rate of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and promote the formation of liquid crystalline phases in comparison with linear analogue chains
Maiz, Jon; Liu, Guoming; Ruipérez, Fernando; Delbosc, Nicolas; Coulembier, Olivier; Wang, Dujin; Müller, Alejandro J.
We have studied how cyclic topology affects the crystallization and morphology of π-conjugated poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) molecules by comparing linear and cyclic analogues for the first time, with three different chain lengths. We employ a range of experimental techniques including wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), polarized light optical microscopy (PLOM), differential scanning…
Topochemical polymerization of hierarchically ordered diacetylene monomers within the block copolymer domains
Krishnan, Deepthi; B, Amal Raj R.; Gowd, E. Bhoje
Integration of polymerizable small molecules within block copolymer based supramolecules provides a new strategy to generate functional materials. Herein we report hydrogen-bonding complexes of photopolymerizable 10,12-pentacosadyionic acid (PCDA) and polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP). We systematically investigate how annealing conditions affect the hierarchical ordering and…
Hierarchical self-assembly of 3D lattices from polydisperse anisometric colloids
Luo, Binbin; Kim, Ahyoung; Smith, John W.; Ou, Zihao; Wu, Zixuan; Kim, Juyeong; Chen, Qian
Anisometric colloids—which have both nanometer and micrometer dimensions—combine features of their two constituent length scales. Here, using optical microscopy and modeling, the authors find that highly polydisperse anisometric colloids self-assemble into 3D, periodic lattices in a manner hardly inaccessible to nano- or micron-scale…
Precise Self-Assembly of Nanoparticles into Ordered Nanoarchitectures Directed by Tobacco Mosaic Virus Coat Protein
Zhang, Jianting; Zhou, Kun; Zhang, Yejun; Du, Mingming; Wang, Qiangbin
Self-assembly guided by biological molecules is a promising approach for fabricating predesigned nanostructures. Protein is one such biomolecule possessing deterministic 3D crystal structure and peptide information, which acts as a good candidate for templating functional nanoparticles (fNPs). However, inadequate coordination efficacy during the establishment of interfacial interactions with fNPs…
Multiscale Self-Assembly of a Phenyl-Flanked Diketopyrrolopyrrole Derivative: A Solution-Processable Building Block for π-Conjugated Supramolecular Polymers
Wang, Kai; Bohra, Hassan; Gonçalves, Rui A.; Bhatnagar, Harshangda; Wu, Yingjie; Wang, Xiaochen; Wang, Zheng; Wei, Xin; Lam, Yeng Ming; Wang, Mingfeng
We report a solution-processable π-conjugated molecular building block (denoted as PhDPP) consisting of a rigid and planar core of phenyl-flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole and “soft” branched alkoxy chains that endow the solubility in a variety of organic solvents. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding in PhDPP was revealed in nonpolar solvents above a threshold of…
Scalable preparation of alternating block copolymer particles with inverse bicontinuous mesophases
Lv, Fei; An, Zesheng; Wu, Peiyi
Block copolymer particles with controlled morphologies play a vital role in materials science and nanotechnology. Here the authors show a scalable preparation of amphiphilic alternating block polymer particles with inverse bicontinuous mesophases via polymerization-induced…
Efficient perovskite photovoltaic devices using chemically doped PCDTBT as a hole-transport material
Wong-Stringer, Michael; Bishop, James E.; Smith, Joel A.; Mohamad, David K.; Parnell, Andrew J.; Kumar, Vikas; Rodenburg, Cornelia; Lidzey, David G.
It is shown that by chemically doping the carbazole-based conjugated polymer PCDTBT using the molecular materials TBP, LiTFSI and FK209, its conductivity can be increased by a factor of 105 times. Such doped PCDTBT films are used as a hole transport material (HTM) for standard architecture (CH(NH2)2PbI3)0.85(CH3NH3PbBr3)0.15 perovskite solar cells…