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Science 29 August 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5330, pp. 1225 - 1232
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5330.1225
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Articles

Competing Interactions and Levels of Ordering in Self-Organizing Polymeric Materials

M. Muthukumar, C. K. Ober, E. L. Thomas

The sophisticated use of self-organizing materials, which include liquid crystals, block copolymers, hydrogen- and pi -bonded complexes, and many natural polymers, may hold the key to developing new structures and devices in many advanced technology industries. Synthetic materials are usually designed with only one structure-forming process in mind. However, combination of both complementary and antagonistic interactions in macromolecular systems can create order in materials over many length scales. Here polymer materials that make use of competing molecular interactions are summarized, and the prospects for the further development of such materials through both synthetic and processing pathways are highlighted.

M. Muthukumar is in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-4530, USA. C. K. Ober is in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-1501, USA. E. L. Thomas is in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.

Volume 277, Number 5330, Issue of 29 August 1997, pp. 1225-1232
©1997 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)