Quantum metamaterials from block copolymers: synthetic pathways to and emergent properties of superconducting gyroids from triblock terpolymer nanocomposites

The last three decades have established block copolymer self-assembly as a scalable route to complex morphologies with exquisite control over the resulting mesostructures. The incorporation of inorganic nanoparticles into these materials has produced record-setting solar cells, batteries, and other devices. However, most of these applications make little use of the crystallographically ordered and highly topologically complex nature of the resulting domains. This unique strength of block copolymers has been shown in simulations to result in emergent properties including negative refractive indices in the visible and circularly polarized light propagation. The primary barrier to realization of these properties has been a lack of synthetic approaches to produce electronic-grade materials, such as superconductors, using block copolymer self-assembly. Using thermal treatments of PI-b-PS-b-PEO triblock terpolymer-niobium oxide nanocomposites, we develop synthetic routes to niobium carbonitride superconductors whose transition temperature varies with morphology and confinement, a first example of the plethora of emergent phenomena we expect from this exciting new class of quantum metamaterials.