OBSERVATION OF MESH AND STRUT STRUCTURES IN BLOCK COPOLYMER HOMOPOLYMER MIXTURES

Mesh and "strut" microdomain structures were observed in a copolymer/homopolymer mixture. The mesh structure consists of alternating parallel sheets composed of A and B macromolecules in which one type of sheets (e.g., A) is fused by catenoidal channels of A traversing through the other type of sheets B. The strut structure is a three-dimensional tunnel network characteristic of bicontinuous microdomain structures of A and B. The mesh and strut structures consist mostly of a hyperbolic interface (with negative Gaussian curvature). They were found between the lamellar and spherical phases.