Abstract
Liquid crystalline block copolymers have been extensively investigated in the
past two decades. Liquid crystals and block copolymers possess different ordering length scales. When they are chemically or physically incorporated in one
materials systems such as liquid crystalline block copolymers, hierarchically
ordered structures can be achieved with the ordering scales ranging from a few
to a few tens nanometers. In this chapter, we will focus on the structure and
assembly of such hierarchical systems in bulk states and the competition of the
two different ordering processes.
Keywords
Liquid crystals · Liquid crystalline polymers · Block copolymers · Self assembly
Definition
Liquid crystalline block copolymers are block copolymers that are comprised of
multiblocks and at least one of the blocks is formed by liquid crystalline polymers.
This chapter reviews the structure and assembly behavior of liquid crystalline block
copolymers.
Introduction
Dealing with the scale of one to a hundred nanometers, nanostructured materials, and
nanotechnologies have become an extremely active and vital area of research
extending into almost every field of science and engineering. Materials with the
size of this length scale show novel and exciting properties as predicted by Richard
Feynman 43 years ago. There are two categories of methods to manufacture nanostructured materials: the so-called top-down and bottom-up methods. The top-down
method typically begins with a suitable starting material and then “sculpts” functionality from it. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach first forms the nanostructured building blocks, and then assembles them into the final materials. As the
top-down method, such as optical lithography technique, reaches its theoretic limits
and processes such as the e-beam lithography are extremely costly and inefficient,
bottom-up methods have drawn more and more attention in the scientific community. One key bottom-up approach is self-assembly, which is defined as the autonomous organization of components into patterns or structures without human
intervention. Self-assembly occurs at all scales ranging from nanometer (selfassembled monolayers, liquid crystals, etc.), micrometer (colloidal crystals, etc.) to
even macroscale (bacterial colonies, fish schools, etc.). It is believed that selfassembly on the nanometer scale is one of the few practical strategies for making
ensembles of nanostructures.
174
K. K. Tenneti et al.
Liquid crystalline block copolymers have been extensively investigated in the
past two decades. Liquid crystals and block copolymers possess different ordering length scales. When they are chemically or physically incorporated in one
materials systems such as liquid crystalline block copolymers, hierarchically
ordered structures can be achieved with the ordering scales ranging from a few
to a few tens nanometers. In this chapter, we will focus on the structure and
assembly of such hierarchical systems in bulk states and the competition of the
two different ordering processes.
Keywords
Liquid crystals · Liquid crystalline polymers · Block copolymers · Self assembly
Definition
Liquid crystalline block copolymers are block copolymers that are comprised of
multiblocks and at least one of the blocks is formed by liquid crystalline polymers.
This chapter reviews the structure and assembly behavior of liquid crystalline block
copolymers.
Introduction
Dealing with the scale of one to a hundred nanometers, nanostructured materials, and
nanotechnologies have become an extremely active and vital area of research
extending into almost every field of science and engineering. Materials with the
size of this length scale show novel and exciting properties as predicted by Richard
Feynman 43 years ago. There are two categories of methods to manufacture nanostructured materials: the so-called top-down and bottom-up methods. The top-down
method typically begins with a suitable starting material and then “sculpts” functionality from it. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach first forms the nanostructured building blocks, and then assembles them into the final materials. As the
top-down method, such as optical lithography technique, reaches its theoretic limits
and processes such as the e-beam lithography are extremely costly and inefficient,
bottom-up methods have drawn more and more attention in the scientific community. One key bottom-up approach is self-assembly, which is defined as the autonomous organization of components into patterns or structures without human
intervention. Self-assembly occurs at all scales ranging from nanometer (selfassembled monolayers, liquid crystals, etc.), micrometer (colloidal crystals, etc.) to
even macroscale (bacterial colonies, fish schools, etc.). It is believed that selfassembly on the nanometer scale is one of the few practical strategies for making
ensembles of nanostructures.
174
K. K. Tenneti et al.