Periodic and Aperiodic Tiling Patterns from a Tetrablock Terpolymer System of the A1BA2C Type

Two tetrablock terpolymers of the S1IS2P type, where S, I, and P denote polystyrene, polyisoprene, and poly(2-vinylpyridine), respectively, were prepared anionically. S1IS2P-1 (S-1/I/S-2/P = 0.35/0.16/0.34/0.15, four numbers being volume fractions of S-1, I, S-2, and P block chains) has a structure with double hexagonal cylinders, while S1IS2P-2 (S-1/I/S-2/P = 0.47/0.15/0.22/0.16) has an unusual double tetragonal structure. Moreover, 13 binary blends were prepared from these two parent polymers. Among them, five blends with alpha(= phi(S1)(phi(S2)) covering the range 1.50 <= alpha <= 1.86 were confirmed to have a 3.3.4.3.4 Archimedean tiling structure, in which their P domains adopt five satellite I domains, while four blends with alpha covering the range 1.37 <= alpha <= 1.48 were revealed to be a quasicrystalline tiling structure with dodecagonal symmetry.