Amphiphilic block copolymers readily organize into spherical or cylindrical micelles in aqueous solution (work from my Doctoral Thesis with Prof. Hatton), but this micellar solution can neither bear a load nor be stretched. Upon crosslinking, the system becomes elastic, but its ability to self-assemble into well-ordered structures is hampered by the presence of the crosslinks which would allow organization into distorted morphologies with only short-range order. Our current research concerns crosslinked block copolymer systems and our efforts are focused on how to use designer’s synthetic chemistry to improve the self-assembly in these systems. We also examine how self-assembly is affected upon deforming the system in tension and in compression. The latter aspect is investigated using calculations and simulations.
