A principal obstacle to widespread applications of self-assembled network morphologies (NETs) of linear block polymers is access to only limited pore diameters and unit cell dimensions (typically <50 nm), originating from their coil configurations and slow self-assembly kinetics at high molar masses. A bottlebrush molecular architecture with extended backbone configurations due to side chain crowding could circumvent these shortcomings. However, NETS are very rarely observed in block bottlebrush polymers.
IRG-2 researchers systematically explored the phase behavior of 25 AB diblock and 108 ABC triblock bottlebrush polymers. A core-shell double gyroid NET was achieved in a substantial subset of the ABC triblock bottlebrush terpolymers for the first time. Encouragingly, the unit cell dimensions (d) of these assemblies increase almost linearly with molecular weight, portending the ability to access larger NET dimensions than previously obtained with linear block polymers for potential optical materials applications.
