Morphological characterization of block copolymers by transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

MARÍA J. YÁÑEZ; MARIO D. NINAGO; ANDRÉS E. CIOLINO; DANIEL A. VEGA; MARCELO A. VILLAR

Rosario - Argentina

Congreso; 10th Inter-American Congress of Electron Microscopy 2009 CIASEM 2009 1st Congress of the Argentine Society of Microscopy SAMIC 2009; 2009

10th Inter-American Congress of Electron Microscopy 2009 CIASEM 2009 1st Congress of the Argentine Society of Microscopy SAMIC 2009

Block copolymers are macromolecules composed of at least two blocks of different monomers. They often exhibit unique and useful properties in solution and in the solid state as a consequence of a microphase separation produced by thermodynamic incompatibility of the blocks. Domains obtained show different morphology (spheric, cylindric or lamellar, among others) as a function of the volume fraction and the relative length of each block as well as the nature of the blocks involved. On the other hand, defects associated to some morphologies can be modified by thermal treatments. In this work we present the morphological characterization of siloxane-based di-block copolymers by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).