The safety concern owing to dendrite formation can be overcome by introducing
a separator between anode and cathode [73] that is mechanically robust and has
good lithium conductivity. Cho et al. studied lithium ion transport in nanostructured
PEO domains prepared by SA of a linear-dendritic block copolymer containing
PEO [17]. They found that lithium conductivity varies strongly as a function
of the dimensionality of the nanostructure, with the 3D co-continuous double
gyroid structure showing the highest lithium conductivity and the best mechanical
properties. Targeting such bicontinuous structures and introducing mechanically
robust blocks to a PEO-containing BCP, one may be able to fabricate separators
with a high lithium conductivity and good mechanical robustness.
7 Summary and Outlook
In this review, we have summarized fabrication of BCP-derived hybrid
nanomaterials and looked at some first promising as well as proposed applications.
Bottom-up BCP SA is a promising approach for designing nanomaterials with
tunable structures and lattice dimensions. In particular, it allows large-scale and
low-cost fabrication of nanomaterials using wet-chemical methodologies. However, due to the lack of material functionality for BCPs with good SA properties
(i.e., flexible polymer coil structures), complementary functional materials are
often combined with the use of BCP SA to meet the needs of today’s applications.
To that end, the Wiesner group at Cornell University has made an effort in
combining BCP SA with functional inorganic materials, resulting in functional
hybrids with ordered structures at the nanoscale. The aims of this review were
to highlight the resulting toolbox of BCP-based nanomaterials, to elucidate the
emerging design parameters for their controlled formation, and to share our views
about where in the future this toolbox may provide innovative solutions for today’s
application challenges. To that end, we briefly introduced the basics of BCP SA
and summarized some of the resulting equilibrium-type nanostructures that one
can obtain from it. From there we showed how nanostructure control by SA can
be transferred to various other material classes for synthesizing nanostructured
hybrid materials. Besides using the principles of equilibrium BCP structure
formation, recent results of the Wiesner group and others point more and more
to the successful control of BCP structures obtained by using conditions far
away from equilibrium. Lastly, we described already-proven and possible future
applications that can benefit from BCP SA-directed hybrid nanomaterials. We
hope that with this review, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Staudinger’s
Nobel Prize, we are able to demonstrate that polymer science, and in particular
the area of BCP SA, is a vibrant research area with a number of emerging and
very exciting research directions intimately connected to important and unrealized
high-value applications that reach from the design of energy device electrodes
to the formation of metamaterials with negative refraction all the way to the
fabrication of asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes. We are convinced that this
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K. Hur and U. Wiesner
a separator between anode and cathode [73] that is mechanically robust and has
good lithium conductivity. Cho et al. studied lithium ion transport in nanostructured
PEO domains prepared by SA of a linear-dendritic block copolymer containing
PEO [17]. They found that lithium conductivity varies strongly as a function
of the dimensionality of the nanostructure, with the 3D co-continuous double
gyroid structure showing the highest lithium conductivity and the best mechanical
properties. Targeting such bicontinuous structures and introducing mechanically
robust blocks to a PEO-containing BCP, one may be able to fabricate separators
with a high lithium conductivity and good mechanical robustness.
7 Summary and Outlook
In this review, we have summarized fabrication of BCP-derived hybrid
nanomaterials and looked at some first promising as well as proposed applications.
Bottom-up BCP SA is a promising approach for designing nanomaterials with
tunable structures and lattice dimensions. In particular, it allows large-scale and
low-cost fabrication of nanomaterials using wet-chemical methodologies. However, due to the lack of material functionality for BCPs with good SA properties
(i.e., flexible polymer coil structures), complementary functional materials are
often combined with the use of BCP SA to meet the needs of today’s applications.
To that end, the Wiesner group at Cornell University has made an effort in
combining BCP SA with functional inorganic materials, resulting in functional
hybrids with ordered structures at the nanoscale. The aims of this review were
to highlight the resulting toolbox of BCP-based nanomaterials, to elucidate the
emerging design parameters for their controlled formation, and to share our views
about where in the future this toolbox may provide innovative solutions for today’s
application challenges. To that end, we briefly introduced the basics of BCP SA
and summarized some of the resulting equilibrium-type nanostructures that one
can obtain from it. From there we showed how nanostructure control by SA can
be transferred to various other material classes for synthesizing nanostructured
hybrid materials. Besides using the principles of equilibrium BCP structure
formation, recent results of the Wiesner group and others point more and more
to the successful control of BCP structures obtained by using conditions far
away from equilibrium. Lastly, we described already-proven and possible future
applications that can benefit from BCP SA-directed hybrid nanomaterials. We
hope that with this review, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Staudinger’s
Nobel Prize, we are able to demonstrate that polymer science, and in particular
the area of BCP SA, is a vibrant research area with a number of emerging and
very exciting research directions intimately connected to important and unrealized
high-value applications that reach from the design of energy device electrodes
to the formation of metamaterials with negative refraction all the way to the
fabrication of asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes. We are convinced that this
290
K. Hur and U. Wiesner