Tailoring Highly Ordered Honeycomb Films Based on Ionomer Macromolecules by the Bottom-Up Approach

A novel route to obtain highly ordered self-assembled honeycomb films has been investigated by a bottom-up process. A polymer with one chain end ionic functionality has been synthesized in a one-step reaction by nitroxide-mediated polymerization. This ionomer synthesis represents a very simple way, and honeycomb structured films have been observed after solvent evaporation in a long-range distance of few hundred microns in a very regular ordered arrangement. These films are simply prepared by spreading Out polymers CS(2) solutions without additives over various substrates as well on inorganic surfaces as onto different polymeric substrates Such as flexible PVC sheet or rigid PMMA plate. Different experimental parameters, such as polymer concentration or wet thickness, have been checked to tune the pores size and thus the honeycomb morphologies. An elegant technique based on reflected and transmitted light has been used to correlate the pores size inside and on the top of the film. This highly ordered hexagonal pattern on the polymeric surfaces suggests the possibility of taking advantage of the microtextures for inducing optical interferences but also to modify the color of this bioinspired material as a function of their Visual angle as in nature.