The Ordered Structures of Poly(styrene-b-4vinylpridine)s

The structures of the mesophases and their subunits of PS-b-P4VP in a toluene solution were studied by using SAXS, TEM and GIFT methods. The hierarchical structures of PS-b-P4VP, such as the individual micelle, the face-centered cubic (fcc) and body-centered cubic (bcc) structures and the lamellar structure, were identified for the first time. The diameter of the micelle core was ${\sim}80\;%$ of the most extended chain length of the core chain, suggesting that the core chains were quite stretched. The stretched chain in the core caused the core of the micelle to be not homogenous with a higher density at the center than at the outer part. As the concentration level increases, the fcc and both fcc and bcc appear for the packing of the micelles of PS(3.3k)-b-P4VP(4.7K) and PS(12K)-b-P4VP(11.8K), respectively. The lamellar structure was also identified, with a further increase in the concentration for PS(3.3k)-b-P4VP(4.7K). These hierarchical structures were also identified via TEM images.