(144f) Self-Assembly of Conjugated Polymers Inside Emulsion Droplets

Conjugated polymers show thermotropic and lyotropic self-assembly when they are dissolved in organic solvents (e.g. xylene). In this work, we explore the influence of spatial confinement on this self-assembly process through the use of small angle scattering (SAXS/SANS) and microscopy (SEM/TEM). Conjugated polymers, such as polythiophene, will naturally form elastic networks of long fibrilar wires (micrometers long) when they are dissolved in unconfined bulk organic solvents and the solvent quality is slowly reduced. Our primary aim in this work is to explore the effect of the spatial confinement that is imposed by the droplet boundary when the conjugated polymer is dissolved in emulsified organic solvents (oil-in-water emulsions) and the solvent quality is reduced. The use of contrast variation SANS allows us to explore the structure of the conjugated polymer without having a strong scattering contribution from the drop shape. The implications of this work on the design of novel organic electronic and photovoltaic technologies will also be discussed.