Unraveling the Phase Behavior of Block Copolymer Materials

The recent discovery of Frank–Kasper phases in block copolymer melts has reinvigorated the study of fundamental phase behavior. This presentation will discuss the role of molecular design, equilibrium thermodynamics, and kinetics in driving the formation of both classical and unconventional mesophases such as A15. In addition, a simple and scalable strategy based on automated chromatography will be described to accelerate the characterization of phase diagrams by fractionating a small number of as-synthesized samples into large libraries spanning a wide range of compositions. The ability to efficiently explore phase space using commercially available chromatography systems should prove broadly useful in the study of multiblock polymers with increasingly complex sequences that are designed to tailor the structure and properties of soft materials.