Onsets of Tethered Chain Overcrowding and Highly Stretched Brush Regime via Crystalline−Amorphous Diblock Copolymers

Lamellar single crystals grown in dilute solutions can be used as templates for tethered chain analysis. Two series of diblock copolymers, poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polystyrene (PEO-b-PS) and poly(l-lactic acid)-block-polystyrene (PLLA-b-PS), were used as model templates to generate tethered PS blocks on the single-crystal basal surfaces. Controlled and tunable reduced tethering density, σ, defined by σπR g 2 (where σ is the tethered chain …