Organogels from ABA triblock copolymers

Abstract

ABA triblock copolymers with two polystyrene endblocks connected by a poly(ethylene/butylene) midblock form highly elastic gels in a solvent which is incompatible for the endblocks but a good solvent for the midblock, for example, paraffin oil. In this situation the polystyrene endblocks aggregate into micelles. The midblocks can either form loops or build up bridges between different micelles; thus, domains and networks of interconnected micelles are produced. We have studied organogels of this kind consisting of a polymer with a molar mass of 90,000 and a styrene content of 31% per weight (Kraton G 1650) in paraffin oil. Rheological, calorimetric (differential scanning calorimetry) and small-angle X-ray scattering experiments were performed on these systems. An interesting result of our work which was not described previously is that the size (r˜ 6.8 nm) and the separation (d˜ 36 nm) of the micellar aggregates does not seem to be influenced by the block copolymer content in the concentration range investigated.