Journal
SOFT MATTER
Volume 10, Issue 21, Pages 3817-3825Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c3sm53090f
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [CBET-1264703]
- Louis and Peaches Owen
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-98CH10886]
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-06CH11357]
- Department of Homeland Security, Office of Science and Technology [2009-ST-000031]
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys
- Directorate For Engineering [1264703] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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All-conjugated block copolymers are an emerging class of polymeric materials promising for organic electronic applications, but further progress requires a better understanding of their microstructure including crystallinity and self-assembly through micro-phase segregation. Here, we demonstrate remarkable changes in the thin film structure of a model series of all-conjugated block copolymers with varying processing conditions. Under thermal annealing, poly(3-hexylthiophene)-b-poly(9',9'-dioctylfluorene) (P3HT-b-PF) all-conjugated block copolymers exhibit crystalline features of P3HT or PF, depending on the block ratio, and poor pi-pi stacking. Under chloroform solvent annealing, the block copolymers exhibit lamellar ordering, as evidenced by multiple reflections in grazing incidence wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS and GISAXS), including an in-plane reflection indicative of order along the pi-pi stacking direction for both P3HT and PF blocks. The lamellae have a characteristic domain size of 4.2 nm, and this domain size is found to be independent of block copolymer molecular weight and block ratio. This suggests that lamellar self-assembly arises due to a combination of polymer block segregation and pi-pi stacking of both P3HT and PF polymer blocks. Strategies for predicting the microstructure of all-conjugated block copolymers must take into account intermolecular pi-pi stacking and liquid crystalline interactions not typically found in flexible coil block copolymers.
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