X-ray microscopy and NEXAFS spectroscopy of macrophase-separated random block copolymer/homopolymer blends

Morphological characterization of bulk polymer blends or compatibilized alloys at submicron spatial resolution has almost exclusively relied upon electron microscopy techniques. Since, however, most organic polymers are composed of carbon and light elements, an arsenal of methods to enhance phase contrast has been developed to facilitate discrimination and analysis of propertygoverning morphological features.1 For transmission electron microscopy (TEM), chemical modification of polymeric specimens through, for example, functionality-specific incorporation of heavy-metal staining agents (typically OsO4 or RuO4) may result in ambiguous results due to an inadequate understanding of the staining reaction or competing reaction kinetics. While microanalytical techniques such as light-element energydispersive X-ray mapping2 and electron spectroscopic (energy-filtered) imaging3-5 can potentially eliminate the need for chemical modification in TEM and have proven highly valuable in identifying morphological characteristics in unmodified multiphase polymer systems, they are typically only capable of distinguishing among constituent elements. In addition, appropriate steps must be exercised during data acquisition to minimize specimen damage due to electron beam irradiation. Another microscopy technique recently applied to the morphological characterization of multiphase polymers is X-ray microscopy (XRM),6-9 in which chemical sensitivity is based on the principles of near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy.10 This technique utilizes a diffractive optical element (zone plate) to focus highly monochromatic soft X-rays in the energy range of 200-600 eV generated by a synchrotron radiation source onto an ultrathin polymer specimen (typically 100-200 nm in thickness). The transmitted flux is detected as a function of specimen position as the specimen is raster-scanned by piezoelectric transducers. A detailed description of the microscope employed in this work is provided elsewhere.11 The practical spatial resolution of XRM is dictated by zone plate technology, with the smallest available probe presently limited to a full width at half-maximum of about 55 nm, resulting in a minimum feature resolution of about 35 nm. Recent XRM studies of multiphase polymers have successfully elucidated the morphological characteristics of a binary blend composed of polypropylene (PP) and poly(styrene-r-acrylonitrile) (SAN).6,8 Such blends are expected a priori to be highly demixed due to the chemical dissimilarity of the constituent polymers. Moreover, SAN (unlike PP) contains nitrogen, in which case the SAN spatial distribution can be discerned by either XRM or the element-specific techniques mentioned earlier. In this work, we explore the sensitivity of XRM by examining a polymer blend in which the constituent materials are identical in terms of the elements present (C and H only) and, moreover, differ only in terms of their fraction of the same chemical moiety (polystyrene, PS). As a consequence, blends of this type have been found12,13 to exhibit complex phase behavior that is highly dependent on both blend composition and molecular weight considerations. Results obtained here from XRM are compared with TEM micrographs of the same blend after functionalityspecific OsO4 staining. The polymers employed in this work were PS with Mh n ) 120 000 andMh w/Mh n≈ 1.04 and a “random” diblock copolymer (RBC) synthesized by living anionic polymerization in the presence of sec-butyllithium and a potassium alkoxide. A detailed description of the copolymer synthesis and molecular characterization (in terms of monomer sequencing) is provided elsewhere14-16 and is not addressed, for the sake of brevity, in this communication. The RBC was a poly[(styrene-r-isoprene)′-b-(styrene-r-isoprene)′′], (S/I)′-b-(S/I)′′, copolymer, where the ′ and ′′ denote different block compositions, namely, 75/25 and 50/50 (wt %) S/I. The overall composition of the RBC was 68 wt % S, as measured by 1H NMR, and the block lengths were approximately 40 000 each. Two RBC/PS blends, one consisting of 20 wt % RBC and 80 wt % PS and the other 80 wt % RBC and 20 wt % PS, were prepared by solution casting from toluene, as described elsewhere.13 Upon slow solvent evaporation and subsequent annealing, the resultant films were sectioned in a Reichert-Jung Ultracut-S cryoultramicrotome maintained at -100 °C. Sections for TEM analysis, nominally 100-120 nm in thickness and stained with the vapor of OsO4(aq) for 90 min, were imaged on a Zeiss EM902 electron spectroscopic microscope operated at 80 kV and ∆E ) 50 eV. The XRM analysis was performed on the X-1A Beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory.