Hanfu Wang

Solvent-induced microphase separation in diblock copolymer thin films with reversibly switchable morphology

We have studied the surface morphology of symmetric poly(styrene)-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer thin films after solvent vapor treatment selective for poly(methyl methacrylate). Highly ordered nanoscale depressions or striped morphologies are obtained by varying the solvent annealing time. The resulting nanostructured films turn out to be sensitive to the surrounding medium, that is, their morphologies and surface properties can be reversibly switchable upon exposure to different block-selective solvents.

Controlling the size of nanostructures in thin films via blending of block copolymers and homopolymers.

The effects of molecular weight and concentration of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) homopolymer or symmetric short polystyrene-block-poly (methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) diblock copolymer on the size of the nanostructures of its blends with symmetric long PS-b-PMMA diblock copolymer have been investigated by atomic force microscopy. By careful controlling of the film thickness, solvent selectivity, and annealing time, PMMA cylindrical microdomains oriented normal to the film surface were obtained in all thin films. With the addition of both low- and high-molecular-weight PMMA homopolymers, the cylindrical domain sizes increased although it was less obvious for the lower molecular weight homopolymer. In contrast to the homopolymer, adding the short chain diblock copolymer resulted in a decrease in the cylindrical domain size, which was ascribed to the reduction of the interfacial tension and increase in the stretching energy.

Vesicles Formed by Oligostyrene-block-Oligoaniline-block-Oligostyrene Triblock Oligomer

Novel π-conjugated coil-rod-coil triblock oligomers containing optoelectronic active oligoaniline segments were synthesized. The block oligomer can self-assemble into diverse aggregating morphologies including spherical micelles and thin-layer vesicles in THF, which is found associated with the removing of the protecting groups of oligoaniline segments. A possible mechanism was proposed to explain the self-assembly behavior changes in which chain conformation variation of the aniline segments initiated from deprotection of the nitrogen atoms is pointed to be the key factor that dominates the transition process.

Fibrils Formed by Dendron-b-oligoaniline-b-dendron Block Co-oligomer.

Novel dendritic triblock co-oligomer (14G2A3) consisting of ester dendrons and aniline oligomer was synthesized and found to self-assemble into fibrils in THF. Studies reveal that the formation of the fibrils originates from both of the amphiphilic interactions between the ester dendrons and oligoaniline, as well as the intermolecular π-π stacking among oligoanilines. The shape effect of dendrons on molecular packing was comparatively analyzed with packing parameter against its linear analogous compound. At the same time, the driving forces that dominate the final aggregating state of the block oligomer were separately investigated using the bulky-group protecting method, which allows release of the intermolecular π-π stacking of oligoaniline in a controlled manner. Results show that both the introduction of dendrons and the intermolecular π-π stacking will increase the packing parameter of the block oligomer and, consequently, cause the self-assembly morphology to evolve step by step from micelles to vesicles and finally to fibrils. The fibrils can form complexes with SWNTs to increase solubility in THF. The effective fluorescence quenching accompanied also opens a gate for the block co-oligomer to have potential applications in organic electronic devices.

Formation of nonextinct ring-banded textures and multistacked lamella of tetra-aniline-block-poly(L-lactide) rod-coil diblock oligomer films induced by solvent vapor treatment

The self-assembly processes of the rod-coil diblock oligomer thin film of tetra-aniline (TANI)-block-poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) with different film thicknesses induced in the coil-selective solvent of acetone vapor at room temperature were studied. The morphologies of the oligomer films were determined by the film thickness. For the thicker film (232 nm), the nonextinct concentric ring-banded textures could form. While for the thinner and appropriate film (about 6 nm), multistacked diamond-shaped appearances with the periodic thickness being about 8.5 nm(6-nm-thick extended PLLA chain and 2.5-nm-thick p-pi conjugating TANI bimolecular layer) formed. The possible formation models of those two regular morphologies were presented in detail.

Fabrication of self-assembled palladium nanosheets using layered organic/inorganic hybrid as the template

In this paper, a simple route to the fabrication of palladium nanosheets is described. The interaction of palladium chloride (PdCl2) and n-octylamine salt resulted in the formation of a quasi-perovskite-type composite with a layered structure on a molecular scale. This composite can be employed as a template for preparing ultrathin Pd nanosheets when a {PdCl4}2− network is reduced in situ by hydrogen in toluene. The x-ray diffraction results indicate that the resulting Pd nanosheets are highly ordered, and they are confined inside the organic matrix as evidenced by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. These Pd nanosheets can be reorganized into layered structures in non-polarized organic solvent when the ordered structure is destroyed. This method of preparing Pd nanosheets is expected to be applicable to other layered organic/inorganic perovskite systems for obtaining the corresponding metal nanosheets.

Oxidation induced self-assembly transformation of dendron-b-oligoaniline-b-dendron dumbbell shape triblock oligomer

The synthesis and characterization of oligoaniline-containing dendron-rod-dendron dumbbell shape block oligomer (14G3A7) are presented. The unusual surface morphological evolution from fibrils to flat single-layer film and to a porous network is observed for 14G3A7 simply by oxidizing the block oligomer in solution. Based on the analysis of cryo-TEM as well as comparative studies on solution concentration and substrate properties, the series of changes in the surface morphology are explained through aniline conformational transition during oxidation. The network self-assembled from oxidized 14G3A7 contains a two dimensional close packing skeleton of aniline segment, which may find a wide range of applications in electronic sensitive devices.