title: Patchy Nanofibers from the Thin Film Self-Assembly of a Conjugated Diblock Copolymer.
abstract: An unexpected morphology comprising patchy nanofibers can be accessed from the self-assembly of an all-conjugated, polyselenophene-block-polythiophene copolymer. This morphology consists of very small (<10 nm), polythiophene- and polyselenophene-rich domains and is unprecedented for both conjugated polymers and diblock copolymers in general. We propose that the patchy morphology occurs from the enhanced miscibility of the blocks arising from the longer alkyl chains in comparison to similar block copolymers with shorter alkyl chains, which fully phase separate, as well as the difference in rigidity between the polythiophene and polyselenophene blocks. This work demonstrates a facile way to tune the self-assembly behavior of conjugated block copolymers by modification of the side chain substituents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Kynaston
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Center for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B8, Canada.|Department of Chemistry, Division of Molecular Imaging and Photonics, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Joseph G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Manion
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Nimrat K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Obhi
authors.affiliation: Hitachi High-Technologies Canada, Inc., 89 Galaxy Blvd, Suite 14, Toronto, ON, M9W 6A4, Canada.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, 184 College St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3E4, Canada.
authors.forename: Jane Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Howe
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Center for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B8, Canada.
authors.forename: Dmitrii F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Perepichka
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Dwight S
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7365-1814
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Seferos
keywords: block copolymers; conducting materials; nanostructures; self-assembly; thin films