Tailoring Block Copolymer Morphologies Via Alkyne/Azide Cycloaddition

We investigated the morphological transitions induced by alkyne/azide Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction in a series of poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(n-butyl methacrylate-random-propargyl methacrylate) (PEO-b-P(nBMA-r-PgMA)) diblock copolymers. Studies on the phase behavior of neat diblock copolymers revealed that the interactions between the PEO block and the terminal alkyne groups in the P(nBMA-r-PgMA) block significantly affected the miscibility between the two blocks and the crystallization of the PEO block. Phase-mixed diblock copolymers underwent disorder-to-order transitions by blending with Rhodamine B azide and annealing at elevated temperatures. Different morphologies were achieved, not only by controlling the composition of the block copolymer but also by blending the diblock copolymer with different amount of azides. Microphase separated PEO-b-P(nBMA-r-PgMA) diblock copolymer also exhibited reactivity toward azides, and order-to-order transitions were observed. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011