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Science 1 October 2004:
Vol. 306. no. 5693, p. 76
DOI: 10.1126/science.1100090
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Brevia

Curving and Frustrating Flatland

Kyusoon Shin,* Hongqi Xiang,* Sung In Moon, Taehyung Kim, Thomas J. McCarthy, Thomas P. Russell{dagger}

Two polymer chains that occupy equal volumes when covalently linked together at one end self-assemble into an alternating lamellar morphology that has a characteristic period dictated by the molecular weight. When such copolymers are confined within alumina membranes that have cylindrical pores with diameters comparable to the repeat period, the interaction of the blocks with the confining walls and the imposed curvature induces a morphological transformation to relieve the constraints. Here, we show a lamella-to-toroid transition, captured through the dissolution of the surrounding membrane.

Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Silvio O. Conte National Center for Polymer Research, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.



* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: russell{at}mail.pse.umass.edu

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