Complex and out-of-equilibrium polymer materials

Depending on their architecture, chemical structure and dissolution conditions, polymers can undergo amphiphilic self-assembly, partial crystallisation, liquid-liquid phase separation or internal block segregation. The interplay of these assembly mechanisms can be partly controlled to obtain otherwise inaccessible, out-of-equilibrium structures and induce the emergence of new properties. We aim to gain a fundamental understanding of these phenomena and learn how to control them to prepare new colloidal and bulk materials with predetermined structures and properties.

Keywords:self-assembly, phase separation, block copolymers

Disciplines:Physical chemistry of materials, Theory and design of materials, Soft condensed matter, Supramolecular chemistry