Reorientation of Microphase-Separated Structures in Water-Suspended Block Copolymer Nanoparticles through Microwave Annealing

We describe here the first report for developing microphase-separated structures in poly(styrene-block-isoprene) (PS-b-PI) block copolymer nanoparticles by microwave annealing in a nonsolvent, water. A random structure in the nanoparticles successfully transformed to thermodynamically stable structures within several minutes though it takes several days by using the conventional thermal annealing process.