Solution self-assembly of block copolymers containing a branched hydrophilic block into inverse bicontinuous cubic mesophases.

Solution self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers into inverse bicontinuous cubic mesophases is an emerging strategy for directly creating highly ordered triply periodic porous polymer nanostructures with large pore networks and desired surface functionalities. Although there have been recent reports on the formation of highly ordered triply periodic minimal surfaces of self-assembled block copolymer bilayers, the structural requirements for block copolymers in order to facilitate the preferential formation of such inverse mesophases in solution have not been fully investigated. In this study, we synthesized a series of model block copolymers, namely, branched poly(ethylene glycol)-block-polystyrene (bPEG-PS), to investigate the effect of the architecture of the block copolymers on their solution self-assembly into inverse mesophases consisting of the block copolymer bilayer. On the basis of the results, we suggest that the branched architecture of the hydrophilic block is a crucial structural requirement for the preferential self-assembly of the resulting block copolymers into inverse bicontinuous cubic phases. The internal crystalline lattice of the inverse bicontinuous cubic structure can be controlled via coassembly of branched and linear block copolymers. The results presented here provide design criteria for amphiphilic block copolymers to allow the formation of inverse bicontinuous cubic mesophases in solution. This may contribute to the direct synthesis of well-defined porous polymers with desired crystalline order in the porous networks and surface functionalities.