Giant thermal tunability of the lamellar spacing in block-copolymer-like supramolecules formed from binary-end-functionalized polymer blends

The investigation of giant thermal tunability of the lamellar spacing in block-copolymer-like supramolecules formed from binary-end-functionalized polymer blends was presented. It was demonstrated that use of block-copolymer-like supramolecules can permit an efficient thermal tuning of the microphase periodicity owing to the reversibility between supramolecular assembly and disassembly. The preceding results based on a diblock-and triblock-like supramolecular system shows that the lamellar microphase swells upon heating to almost 300%, which cannot be achieved in any covalent-bonded block copolymer system of the same material. The characteristic dimensions of a microphase can be controlled by varying the molecular weight of the block copolymer.