Inducing unique polymeric morphology based on molecular assembly: model cases from thermoplastic elastomer SEBS and/or supramolecular benzoxazine

Abstract

The present work focuses on inducing the polymer morphology via the molecular self-assembly approaches. In the first part, an existence of ordered-structure microdomains, nano-phase separation, of thermoplastic elastomers in as-spun electrospinning fibers is clarified through a study case of SEBS triblock copolymer using two-dimensional small angle X-ray scattering (2D-SAXS) technique. The work also shows that when the molecular interaction is formed the microdomain direction can be controlled as seen in the case of benzoxazine monomer (BZ) to induce microdomain orientation to be parallel to the fiber axis based on the π-π interaction between PS segment of SEBS and BZ monomer leads to molecular pocket-like structure to control the polymerization of BZ and give polyBZ nano-sphere which is a simple approach to prepare thermosetting nano-sphere. In the final part, the work covers supramolecular chemistry of BZ dimers, so-called N,N-Bis(2-hydroxyalkylbenzyl) alkylamine, to prepare a novel diacetylene (DA) monomer containing BZ dimers based cyclic ether which will be an effective pathway for solid-state polymerization to obtain polydiacetylenes.