Electrostatic Interactions Control the Nanostructure of Conjugated Polyelectrolyte–Polymeric Ionic Liquid Blends

Le, My Linh; Grzetic, Douglas J.; Delaney, Kris T.; Yang, Kai-Chieh; Xie, Shuyi; Fredrickson, Glenn H.; Chabinyc, Michael L.; Segalman, Rachel A.

doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01142

Electrostatic Interactions Control the Nanostructure of Conjugated Polyelectrolyte–Polymeric Ionic Liquid Blends

Journal Article · Tue Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Macromolecules

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01142· OSTI ID:1971728

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Yang, Kai-Chieh ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]

Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); University of California, Santa Barbara
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

Polyelectrolyte complexation offers unique opportunities to compatibilize polymers with very different backbone chemistries and to control the morphology of the resulting blend via electrostatic manipulation. In this study, we demonstrate the ability to formulate homogeneous complexes of a conjugated polyelectrolyte with a polymeric ionic liquid, utilizing the electrostatic attraction among their oppositely charged side chains. Variation of electrostatic parameters, such as counterion concentration or polymer charge fraction, tunes the morphology of these polymer complexes from homogeneously disordered blend to weakly structured microemulsion where the local ordering arises from backbone-immiscibility-induced microphase segregation. Our experimental observations are in qualitative agreement with both field-theoretic simulation and random-phase approximation calculations. Simulated morphology snapshots suggest and experimental evidence also indicates that the microphase-segregated complex likely takes on a cocontinuous microemulsion structure. Our findings show that ionic interactions are an effective pathway to compatibilize polymers at macroscopic length scales while achieving controlled nanostructures in these ionic blends. Such systems have great potential for engineering the nanostructure of polymers to tailor applications such as nanofiltration, catalysis, and energy storage, where local ordering can enhance the physical properties of an otherwise macroscopically homogeneous structure.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019001; SC0016390

OSTI ID:: 1971728

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1992775

Journal Information:: Macromolecules, Journal Name: Macromolecules Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 55; ISSN 0024-9297

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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