Macromol. Rapid Commun. 16/2013

Abstract

Time‐resolved grazing‐incidence smallangle X‐ray scattering is used to investigate the structural changes in a lamellar block copolymer thin film during solvent vapor treatment and drying. Drastic changes proceed at the film surface: During solvent vapor treatment, the film surface is covered by one of the blocks. During drying, this thin surface layer retracts, and protrusions of the other block are formed. Further details can be found in the article by J. Zhang, D. Posselt, A. Sepe, X. Shen, J. Perlich, D.‐M. Smilgies, and C. M. Papadakis* on page 1289.

Complex Macrophase‐Separated Nanostructure Induced by Microphase Separation in Binary Blends of Lamellar Diblock Copolymer Thin Films

“…The films having φ β = 0.0–0.5 are clearly microphase‐separated (Figure a‐d), exhibiting a lamellar surface topography, which is visible in the phase images because of the mechanical contrast between PS and PB . This is consistent with our previous observation that pure PS‐ b ‐PB α forms perpendicular lamellae . At φ β = 0.7, the homogeneously distributed lamellar structures are only weakly visible in the phase image (Figure e), and for φ β = 0.9 and 1.0, no lamellar structures can be distinguished in the phase images (Figure f,g).…”

“…The image of the thin film from pure PS‐ b ‐PB α ( φ β = 0) at α i = 0.18° displays first‐order Bragg rods (BRs), which are strongly extended along q z , that is, normal to the film surface (for a zoom see Figure S3, Supporting Information). This extension results from the protrusion of the PS blocks at the film surface, as shown by us previously . The inner structure of the thin film from pure PS‐ b ‐PB α is shown schematically in Figure c.…”

“…SVA of the films was carried out in a home‐made cell (Scheme S1, Supporting Information). The details of the cell as well as the SVA protocol have been described by us previously . Swelling of the film was accomplished by letting cyclohexane (CHX) vapor flow at a rate of ≈0.6 l h −1 into the sample cell for 35 min.…”

Bio‐Inspired Dopamine Functionalization of Polypyrrole for Improved Adhesion and Conductivity

“…[4][5][6] Among various conductive biopolymers, polypyrrole (PPy) has been extensively investigated due to its economical preparation, long-term stability, and good biocompatibility. [ 7,8 ] However, PPy is in a form of black precipitate that is insoluble in water and in most organic solvents, making it diffi cult to be further functionalized and processed. [9][10][11] Moreover, PPy has poor mechanical and adhesion properties, which are major obstacles for industrial usages.…”

Macroporous Nanocomposite Materials Prepared by Solvent Evaporation from Pickering Emulsion Templates

“…Porous materials consisting of functional compositions and with controlled microstructures have received increasing attention in a wide variety of applications, such as tissue engineering, [1][2][3] drug delivery, [4,5] sensing, [6] sorption, [7] and catalysis, [8] due to their large surface area, low density, and high porosity. A recent promising method for the preparation of porous materials is to make use of emulsion templating because of its simplicity and versatility.…”