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Abstract
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Novel ternary mixed-brush single crystals were designed with disperse-within-disperse and star-like co-continuous morphologies
based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-b-polystyrene (PS)/PEG-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/PEG-b-polyaniline
(PANI) and PEG-b-PS/PEG-b-PMMA/PEG-b-(poly(𝜺-caprolactone) (PCL) or poly(L-lactide) (PLLA)) block copolymers, respectively.
In the disperse-within-disperse ternary mixed brushes, PANI nanorodswere dispersed within thematrix (PS)–dispersed (PMMA)
amorphous brushes. The flexibility and rigidity of brushesmainly affected the ultimate morphology and arrangement of amorphous
coiled brushes in the vicinity of PANI nanorods. In addition, the migration of PCL and PLLA crystallizable brushes was
evident into PMMAphases dispersed in the PSmatrix, leading to star-like co-continuous patterns of PCL and PLLA brushes. This
phenomenonwas related to the miscibility of crystallizable PCL and PLLA brushes with the PMMAphase. The migration of crystallizable
PCL and PLLA brushes increased the size of PMMA domains in the star-like co-continuous patterns. Despite the larger
osmotic pressure of PLLA brushes, their higher miscibility with PMMA chains reflected the greater PMMA dispersal and wider
PLLA star-like branches.
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