Nanostructures of functional block copolymers

Block copolymers were long known to self-assemble and form various mesophasic structures under appropriate conditions. Other than a few scattered studies, advantage was not taken of these mesophasic structures for the preparation of ‘permanent’ or crosslinked nanostructures. Recently diblocks containing photocrosslinkable and sometimes degradable blocks have been synthesized. The different domains of the mesophases of these diblocks were crosslinked and sometimes degraded to yield nanostructures including nanospheres, nanofibers and nanochannels in polymer thin films. Some of the advances that have taken place of late are in the preparation, characterization and application of these three types of nanostructured materials.