New block polymer phases discovered by CEMS team featured in Science

May 4, 2017 - In this week’s issue of Science magazine, CEMS researchers report the discovery of two new phases in diblock polymers. Using a novel thermal processing approach, postdoc Dr. Kyungtae Kim, alumna Dr. Morgan Schulze, and graduate student Ron Lewis discovered two so-called Laves phases, C14 and C15, by first quenching the system in liquid nitrogen and then reheating it. Using self-consistent field theory, grad student Akash Arora showed that many such complex packings of spheres have nearly the same free energy, providing theoretical support for the experimental result. This thermal processing approach is analogous to the methods to access metastable phases in metals, for example in processing steel. The team was advised by Professors Frank Bates, Marc Hillmyer and Kevin Dorfman.

Related Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aam7212