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ATRP Enhances Structural Correlations In Polymerization-Induced Phase Separation**

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

A. Sicher
R. Whitfield
J. Ilavsky
V. Saranathan
A. Anastasaki
E.R. Dufresne

Abstract

Synthetic methods to control the structure of materials at sub-micron scales are typically based on the self-assembly of structural building blocks with precise size and morphology. On the other hand, many living systems can generate structure across a broad range of length scales in one step directly from macromolecules, using phase separation. Here, we introduce and control structure at the nano- and microscales through polymerization in the solid state, which has the unusual capability of both triggering and arresting phase separation. In particular, we show that atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) enables control of nucleation, growth, and stabilization of phase-separated poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) domains in a solid polystyrene (PS) matrix. ATRP yields durable nanostructures with low size dispersity and high degrees of structural correlations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the length scale of these materials is controlled by the synthesis parameters. © 2023 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Date Published

Journal

Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

Volume

62

Issue

16

ISBN Number

14337851 (ISSN)

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85149723315&doi=10.1002%2fanie.202217683&partnerID=40&md5=9dac6c47f32e934e5f5d4b13ef50b173

DOI

10.1002/anie.202217683

Alternate Journal

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

Group (Lab)

Eric Dufresne Group

Funding Source

DE‐AC02‐06CH11357

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