LAUSR

Novel ternary mixed-brush single crystals were designed with the disperse-within-disperse and star-like co-continuous morphologies based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-b-poly(styrene) (PS)/PEG-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/PEG-b-polyaniline (PANI) and PEG-b-PS/PEG-b-PMMA/PEG-b-(poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) or poly(L-lactide) (PLLA)) block copolymers, respectively. In disperse-within-disperse ternary mixed-brushes, the PANI nanorods were dispersed within the matrix (PS)-disperse (PMMA) amorphous brushes. The flexibility and rigidity of brushes mainly affected the ultimate morphology and arrangement of amorphous coiled brushes in the vicinity of PANI nanorods. In addition, the migration of PCL and PLLA crystallizable brushes was detected into the PMMA phases dispersed in the PS matrix, leading to the star-like co-continuous patterns of PCL and PLLA brushes. This phenomenon was related to the miscibility of crystallizable PCL and PLLA brushes with the PMMA phase. The migration of crystallizable PCL and PLLA brushes increased the size of PMMA domains in the star-like co-continuous patterns. Despite the larger osmotic pressure of PLLA brushes, their higher miscibility with PMMA chains, reflected the bigger PMMA disperses and wider PLLA star-like branches.