Large pore size nanoporous materials from the self-assembly of asymmetric bottlebrush block copolymers

Justin Bolton; Travis S Bailey; Javid Rzayev

doi:10.1021/nl103747m

Large pore size nanoporous materials from the self-assembly of asymmetric bottlebrush block copolymers

Nano Lett. 2011 Mar 9;11(3):998-1001. doi: 10.1021/nl103747m. Epub 2011 Jan 31.

Authors

Justin Bolton¹, Travis S Bailey, Javid Rzayev

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260-3000, United States.

PMID: 21280666
DOI: 10.1021/nl103747m

Abstract

Asymmetric polystyrene-polylactide (PS-PLA) bottlebrush block copolymers have been shown to self-assemble into a cylindrical morphology with large domain spacings. PLA cylinders can be selectively etched out of the shear-aligned polymer monoliths to generate nanoporous materials with an average cylindrical pore diameter of 55 nm. The remaining bottlebrush backbone provides a functional, hydrophilic coating inside the nanopores. This methodology significantly expands the range of pore sizes attainable in block copolymer based nanoporous materials.