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Nanoporous Films with Sub‐10 nm in Pore Size from Acid‐Cleavable Block Copolymers
Author(s) -
Li Yayuan,
Xu Yawei,
Cao Shubo,
Zhao Yongbin,
Qu Ting,
Iyoda Tomokazu,
Chen Aihua
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201600662
Subject(s) - nanoporous , copolymer , materials science , azobenzene , thin film , polymer , polymer chemistry , methacrylate , chemical engineering , annealing (glass) , ethylene oxide , benzoic acid , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , composite material , chemistry , engineering
Nanoporous thin films with pore size of sub‐10 nm are fabricated using an acid‐cleavable block copolymer (BCP), a benzoic imine junction between poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(methacrylate) (PMAAz) bearing an azobenzene side chain (denoted as PEO‐ bei ‐PMAAz) as the precursor. After a thermal annealing, the block copolymers are self‐assembled to form highly ordered PEO cylinders within a PMAAz matrix normal to the film, even in the case of low BCP molecular weight due to the existing of the liquid crystalline (LC) azobenzene rigid segment. Thus, PMAAz thin films with pore size of ≈7 nm and density of ≈10 12 cm −2 are obtained after removal of the PEO minor phase by breaking the benzoic imine junction under mild acidic conditions. This work enriches the nanoporous polymer films from BCP precursors and introduces the LC property as a functionality which can further enhance the mechanical properties of the films and broaden their applications.