Study of oriented block copolymers films obtained by roll-casting

Roll-casting orientation of cylinder microphase separated poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) triblock copolymers, was analyzed. The mechanical anisotropy of roll-cast films, defined as the ratio of Young's modulus obtained parallel and perpendicular to poly(styrene) cylinders, is similar for samples prepared using a dimensionless minimum gap between rolls higher than approximately 0.02. The orientation of samples was also characterized by measuring the full width at the half intensity maximum of small angle X-ray scattering intensity circle profiles and showed good correlation with modulus measurements. Blends of triblock and diblock with up to 60 wt% of diblock show orientation as good as the neat triblock sample. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.