Journal article
Self-assembly of fully conjugated rod-rod diblock copolymers within nanofibers
Soft matter, v 9(46), pp 11014-11020
01 Jan 2013
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
We report the fabrication and self-assembly study of electrospun nanofibers of oligothiophene-block-oligophenylenevinylene, a fully conjugated rod-rod diblock copolymer (BCP). X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy of microtomed sections of nanofibers and solution-cast films revealed the formation of hierarchical self-assembly, consisting of BCP micro-phase separation at the length scale of 5 nm and molecular ordering within individual conjugated blocks at the length scale of 0.4-1.6 nm. Extensional flow during electrospinning transforms the curved BCP morphology (in films) into a lamellar morphology in nanofibers oriented along the axis. In addition, electrospinning induces a partial interdigitation of side chains resulting in a unique thiophene phase with two distinct populations of pi-pi stacking structures at the molecular sub-nanometer level. To our knowledge, this is the first ever study to investigate the self-assembly of fully conjugated rod-rod block copolymers within nanofibers, a material system with the potential to revolutionize the field of wearable photovoltaics.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Self-assembly of fully conjugated rod-rod diblock copolymers within nanofibers
- Creators
- Alda Kapllani - Drexel UniversityChau Tran - Drexel UniversityVibha Kalra - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Soft matter, v 9(46), pp 11014-11020
- Publisher
- Royal Soc Chemistry
- Number of pages
- 7
- Grant note
- CMMI-1144376 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biological Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000326747700010
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84887541648
- Other Identifier
- 991019167702704721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Chemistry, Physical
- Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
- Physics, Multidisciplinary
- Polymer Science