Functional Block Copolymer Gyroidal Hybrid Nanomaterials

This talk will discuss block copolymer self-assembly directed hybrid materials with double and single gyroid morphologies. The focus will be on preparation of functional materials in which the co-continuous cubic gyroid structures with nanoscopic confinement imparts novel properties on the final materials. To that end, diblock copolymers and triblock terpolymers will be used to structure direct inorganic components typically in the form of nanoparticles. Fundamental design criteria for successful periodic cubic gyroidal lattice formation of the resulting block copolymer-nanoparticle hybrids will be discussed. In addition to the characterization of resulting bulk hybrids, the talk will present the formation of mesoporous inorganic materials with gyroidal morphology resulting from further thermal processing. It will be demonstrated how fundamental understanding of block copolymer co-assembly with inorganic nanoparticles allows these approaches to be generalized from amorphous oxides and high-temperature non-oxides to highly crystalline transition metal oxides, metals, and seminconductors all the way to superconductors with applications ranging from separation technologies to energy conversion and storage all the way to catalysis. Examples will be provided of how the resulting periodically structured and mesoporous inorganic materials with double or single gyroid morphologies control properties beyond the intrinsic atomic lattice structures, resulting in metamaterials.