| Abstract
| - The surface chemistry of nanoparticles can be modified so that these particles behave like surfactants and localizeat interfaces between two fluids. We demonstrate that small volume fractions φP of such surfactant nanoparticles addedto lamellar diblock copolymers lead initially to a decrease in lamellar thickness with φP, a consequence of decreasinginterfacial tension, up to a critical value of φP, beyond which the block copolymer adopts a bicontinuous morphology.These bicontinuous morphologies have stable domain spacings below 100 nm that further decrease with increasingφP and offer new routes to nanoscopically engineered polymer films with potential photovoltaic, fuel cell, and batteryapplications.
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