Using Block Copolymers as a Templating Additive to Create Ordered Polymer Nanocomposites

Polymer nanocomposites have shown incredible potential to lead to seemingly limitless innovations in a wide range of fields; however for many applications the optimal properties are only attained when the nanoparticles are well dispersed, or even ordered, within the matrix. While there has been significant progress in creating materials with an increased dispersion of nanoparticles, progress in creating bulk nanocomposites with long-range order has been slow. In this presentation, we will discuss our recent efforts in using block copolymers as an additive to promote the ordering of nanoparticles in epoxy thermosets. The addition of the block copolymers in the epoxy resin creates a gel-like structure allowing for annealing of the block copolymer ordered structure prior to crosslinking the epoxy matrix. The effects of the block copolymer to epoxy monomer ratios, the block copolymer length and the processing methods on the structure, property and kinetics of formation have been investigated by SAXS, DSC, rheology and DMA. These results provide new insights into how to design processes to promote the ordering of nanoparticles in bulk materials.