Morphology Control of Highly Sulfonated Block Copolymers by a Simple Thermal Process

Abstract

Abstract Well‐defined sulfonated block copolymers were prepared by direct thermolysis with block copolymers of n ‐butyl acrylate ( n BA) and neopentyl styrene sulfonated (NSS), which were synthesized by Cu‐based living radical polymerization ( $\overline M _{\rm w} /\overline M _{\rm n}$ <1.20). A simple thermal process for 10 min at 150 °C completely deprotected the neopentyl groups in the poly(NSS) block segment to give fully sulfonated polystyrene backbone. SAXS profile of the block copolymer with 47 wt.‐% of poly(NSS) showed lamella structure, which appeared more clearly with long ranged order after sulfonation of the block copolymer. magnified image