Macromolecules, Vol.51, No.19, 7807-7816, 2018
Archimedean Tiling Patterns Self-Assembled from X-Shaped Rod-Coil Copolymers with Hydrogen Bonds
On the basis of self-consistent field theory (SCFT), we demonstrate that X-shaped rod-coil molecules with hydrogen-bonding groups self-assemble into Archimedean tiling patterns including [3(6)], [4(4)], [6(3)], [3.4.6.4], and [(3.6)(2)], and dual tiling patterns including dual-[3(2).4.3.4]. The rod blocks form the edges of polygons, coil blocks fill in the inner spaces of polygons, and the existence of hydrogen bonds further decreases the domain size. A new mechanism is proposed to guide the formation of Archimedean tiling patterns: the fabrication of tiling patterns is controlled by the relationship between the length-diameter ratio beta and volume fraction f(R) of rigid cores in X-shaped supra-macromolecules. This study provides a concept of macromolecular tiling for producing Archimedean tilings and suggests X-shaped rod-coil supra-macromolecules with hydrogen-bonding groups as an ideal platform for the fabrication of two-dimensional nanoscale patterns.