Tunable Nanostructuring of PS-b-PMMA Diblock Copolymers in Epoxy-Amine Systems via Control on the Curing Cycle

H. ROMEO; I. A. ZUCCHI; CRISTINA E. HOPPE; R. J. J. WILLIAMS

Bogotá

Congreso; SLAP 2012; 2012

Block copolymer (BC)-modified epoxy-amine systems represent a kind of versatile materials which can be employed towards the development of next-generation devices. In this study, a poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) diblock copolymer was employed as a modifier of an epoxy-amine system (based on diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and 4,4´-methylene bis (2,6-diethylaniline) (MDEA)) aiming at obtaining nanostructured composites. Although a low-copolymer concentration was used (20 wt%), materials with a high degree of order, usually obtained at high BC loadings, could be synthesized. Morphologies were strongly dependent on the degree of conversion of the epoxy precursors and the cure cycle employed. For example, by cooling or not between cure and post-cure stages different BC motifs were obtained. In this work we demonstrate that tunable structured nanocomposites can be rendered by simply controlling the cure cycle without changing the global BC concentration.