title: Ordered three- and five-ply nanocomposites from ABC block terpolymer microphase separation with niobia and aluminosilicate sols.
abstract: We report the first use of a non-frustrated block terpolymer for the synthesis of highly ordered oxide nanocomposites containing multiple plies. The morphological behavior of 15 ISO-oxide nanocomposites was investigated spanning a large range of compositions along the ƒ(I)=ƒ(S) isopleth using aluminosilicate and niobia sols. Morphologies were determined by TEM and SAXS measurements. Four morphologies were identified, including core-shell hexagonal, core-shell double gyroid, three-domain lamellae, and core-shell inverse-hexagonal, in order of increasing O+oxide vol fraction. All of the resulting nanocomposites had three- or five-ply morphologies containing domains that were continuous in one, two, or three dimensions. The five-ply core-shell double gyroid phase was only found to be stable when the O+oxide domain was a minority. Removal of the polymer enabled simple and direct synthesis of mesoporous oxide materials while retaining the ordered network structure. We believe that advances in the synthesis of multi-ply nanocomposites will lead to advanced materials and devices containing multiple plies of functional materials.
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
authors.forename: Morgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stefik
authors.forename: Surbhi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahajan
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sai
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Epps
authors.forename: Frank S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.forename: Sol M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Gruner
authors.forename: Francis J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Disalvo
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wiesner