RSC Publishing


Publishing

 

Cover image for Journal of Materials Chemistry, select for current issue

Journal of Materials Chemistry

High impact applications, properties and synthesis of exciting new materials



Also of interest

Soft Matter

Physics, chemistry and biology of Soft Matter

Subscribers

Non-subscribers

Free access



Paper

J. Mater. Chem., 2008, 18, 530 - 536, DOI: 10.1039/b714941g

Ultra-low- materials derived from poly(D,L-lactide-b-pentafluorostyrene) diblock copolymers

Tracy L. Bucholz, Sally Peng Li and Yueh-Lin Loo

Well-defined diblock copolymers of D,L-lactide and pentafluorostyrene with narrow molecular weight distributions (polydispersity index <1.25) were successfully synthesized via sequential ring-opening and atom transfer radical polymerizations. Poly(D,L-lactide) is the minority component; microphase separation results in discrete poly(D,L-lactide) nanostructures organized in a polypentafluorostyrene matrix. The poly(D,L-lactide) block was then quantitatively degraded and removed via acid-catalyzed hydrolysis to yield a nanoporous fluorinated matrix with the same lattice dimensions as those of the parent diblock copolymer. These nanoporous fluorinated films have overall dielectric constants <2.0, making them suitable candidates as interlayer metal insulators in microelectronic applications. Further, the dielectric constants of these films can be tuned by adjusting the amount of poly(D,L-lactide) in the parent diblock copolymers during synthesis.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b714941g)