Chirality from segments to domain shapes in ordered block copolymer networks

Multi-continuous structures offer an attractive route to devise functional materials where three dimensional microphase geometry can influence transport, mechanical, and optical properties. BCPs, assemble into a variety of such network phases, provide the ability to tune the properties of the network structures. Recently, it has been shown that underlying the inhomogeneous spatial density profiles of BCP domains, are intra-domain segment orientation textures that couple to the domain geometry. Here, we will quantify chirality at different length scales in these self-assembled systems and ask specifically what is the coupling of domain geometry on local segment twist. To this effect, we define two measures of chirality at global (inter-node dihedral rotation at the network scale) and local (cholesteric ordering at segment scale) and study their correlation in network morphologies self-assembled from ABC terpolymers. We use SCFT to show how these chiral order parameters change upon varying volume fraction, interblock repulsion and network symmetry. This study forms the basis to understand the thermodynamics of chirality transfer from chiral interactions at the segment scale to controllable chiral network symmetries at the mesodomain scale.