Influence of Anion Exchange in Self-Assembling of Polymeric Ionic Liquid Block Copolymers

A new technique for the modification of lamellar domain sizes in polymeric ionic liquid block copolymers has been proposed. Anion exchange in polymeric ionic liquids opens new ways to modify the sizes of lamella domains without modifying the ratio between the two different blocks of the neat copolymer. This study focuses on the influence of quaternization of poly(2-vinylpyridine) in poly(styrene-b-2-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P2VP) and the effect of anion exchange in the nanostructured phases for thin films. The resulting materials obtained from the quaternization modification technique of the block copolymers and the anion exchange of the polymeric ionic liquid were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Furthermore, morphological characterization of the initial block polymer and several polymeric ionic liquid block copolymers has been carried out by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in order to analyze the influence of the anion in the nanostructures of these block copolymers.