Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.139, No.42, 14869-14872, 2017
Amplifying (Im)perfection: The Impact of Crystallinity in Discrete and Disperse Block Co-oligomers
Crystallinity is seldomly utilized as part of the microphase segregation process in ultralow-molecular-weight block copolymers. Here, we show the preparation of two types of discrete, semicrystalline block co-oligomers, comprising an amorphous oligodimethyl-siloxane block and a crystalline oligo-L-lactic acid or oligomethylene block. The self-assembly of these discrete materials results in lamellar structures with unforeseen uniformity in the domain spacing. A systematic introduction of dispersity reveals the extreme sensitivity of the microphase segregation process toward chain length dispersity in the crystalline block.