Ordered three- and five-ply nanocomposites from abc block terpolymer microphase separation with niobia and aluminosilicate sols

We report the first use of a nonfrustrated block terpolymer for the synthesis of highly ordered oxide nanocomposites containing multiple plies. The morphological behavior of 15 ISO-oxide nanocomposites was investigated spanning a large range of compositions along the f₁ =f_s isopleth using aluminosilicate and niobia sols. Morphologies were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements. Four morphologies were identified, including core-shell hexagonal, core-shell double gyroid, three-domain lamellae, and core-shell inverse-hexagonal, in order of increasing O + oxide volume fraction. All of the resulting nanocomposites had three- or five-ply morphologies containing domains that were continuous in one, two, or three dimensions. The five-ply core-shell double gyroid phase was only found to be stable when the O + oxide domain was a minority. Removal of the polymer enabled simple and direct synthesis of mesoporous oxide materials while retaining the ordered network structure. We believe that advances in the synthesis of multiply nanocomposites will lead to advanced materials and devices containing multiple plies of functional materials.