Block Copolymer Permeable Membrane with Visualized High‐Density Straight Channels of Poly(ethylene oxide)

Abstract

Abstract A simple fabrication, scalable to centimeter scale, of a permeable membrane made of block copolymer containing molecular transport channels is demonstrated by coating photo‐crosslinkable liquid‐crystalline block copolymer, consisting of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(methacrylate) (PMA) bearing stilbene (Stb) mesogens in the side chains (PEO 114 ‐ b ‐PMA(Stb) 52 ), onto a sacrificial cellulose acetate film substrate. After thermal annealing, perpendicularly aligned and hexagonally arranged PEO cylindrical domains with a surface density of 10 11 cm −2 were formed and then fixed efficiently by photo‐crosslinking the stilbene moieties in the PMA(Stb) domains by [2 + 2] dimerization. The fully penetrating straight PEO cylindrical domains across the 480‐nm‐thick membrane were well‐defined and visualized as molecule‐transport channels. After exfoliated by removal of the cellulose acetate layer, the membrane could be transferred onto another substrate by either scooping or a horizontal lifting method. Throughout the processes, the fully penetrating PEO channels across the membrane are preserved to open at both ends. A simple permeation experiment demonstrates that rhodamine dyes permeate efficiently through the PEO cylindrical channels of the annealed membrane but not across a non‐annealed one.