Wide bicontinuous compositional windows from co-networks made with telechelic macromonomers.

Phase-separated and self-assembled co-network materials offer a simple route to bicontinuous morphologies, which are expected to be highly beneficial for applications such as ion, charge, and oxygen transport. Despite these potential advantages, the programmed creation of co-network structures has not been achieved, largely due to the lack of well-controlled chemistries for their preparation. Here, a thiol-ene end-linking platform enables the systematic investigation of phase-separated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and polystyrene (PS) networks in terms of the molecular weight and relative volume fractions of precursor polymers.

Multiblock Copolymers by Thiol Addition Across Norbornene.

Multiblock copolymers, composed of different combinations and number of blocks, offer appreciable opportunities for new advanced materials. However, exploring this parameter space using traditional block copolymer synthetic techniques, such as living polymerization of sequential blocks, is time-consuming and requires stringent conditions. Using thiol addition across norbornene chemistry, we demonstrate a simple synthetic approach to multiblock copolymers that produces either random or alternating architectures, depending on the choice of reactants.

Tunable Networks from Thiolene Chemistry for Lithium Ion Conduction.

End-functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were cross-linked by a thiolene reaction with a tetra-functional thiol to create robust, tunable networks. These networks were loaded with increasing amounts of lithium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl imide) (LiTFSI), and their ion conductivity was measured. A wide range of salt loading was achieved, allowing the investigation of both salt-in-polymer and polymer-in-salt regimes.