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Phase behavior and viscoelastic properties of entangled block copolymer gels

  1. Daniel A. Vega1,†,
  2. John M. Sebastian1,‡,
  3. Yueh-Lin Loo1,
  4. Richard A. Register1,2,*

Article first published online: 3 AUG 2001

DOI: 10.1002/polb.1192

Issue

Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics

Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics

Volume 39, Issue 18, pages 2183–2197, 15 September 2001

Additional Information

How to Cite

Vega, D. A., Sebastian, J. M., Loo, Y.-L. and Register, R. A. (2001), Phase behavior and viscoelastic properties of entangled block copolymer gels. J. Polym. Sci. B Polym. Phys., 39: 2183–2197. doi: 10.1002/polb.1192

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544

  2. 2

    Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544

  1. †

    Department of Physics, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Av. Alem 1253, 8000-Bahia Blanca, Argentina

  2. ‡

    Science Research Center, 3M Corporate Research, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144-1000

*Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 3 AUG 2001
  2. Article first published online: 3 AUG 2001
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 9 JUL 2001
  4. Manuscript Revised: 2 JUL 2001
  5. Manuscript Received: 1 MAY 2001

Funded by

  • National Science Foundation through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials. Grant Number: DMR-9802468
  • National Research Council of Argentina (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas)
  • Universidad Nacional del Sur

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Keywords:

  • block copolymers;
  • entanglements;
  • gels;
  • micelles;
  • phase diagrams;
  • star polymers

Abstract

Triblock copolymers in midblock-selective solvents can form physical gels. However, at low triblock contents (near the percolation threshold), the bridging of chains between micelles can lead to macrophase separation. Adding a styrene–isoprene diblock to a styrene–isoprene–styrene triblock copolymer in squalane can eliminate macrophase separation, yielding a wide range of stable, single-phase gels with a disordered arrangement of micelles. The plateau modulus of these triblock gels scales with the 2.2 power of polymer content, indicating the importance of entanglements in dictating the modulus. Comparing gels made from the midblock-saturated derivative of the same polymer [styrene-(ethylene-alt-propylene)-styrene] in squalane reveals that the modulus differences in the gels are a direct consequence of the difference in the entanglement molecular weight of the midblock homopolymer in bulk. Finally, the broad relaxation spectrum of these triblocks is well-described by a recent theory for the dynamics of entangled star polymers, with the breadth of the relaxation spectrum dictated by the number of entanglements per midblock in the gel. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 2183–2197, 2001

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (278K)