ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Nanoscale-confined crystallization in epoxy resin and polyethylene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer blends Yi Hongling & Wang Xilin & Wei Ting & Lin Heng & Zheng Baicun Received: 6 December 2011 / Revised: 8 April 2012 / Accepted: 11 April 2012 / Published online: 27 April 2012 # Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract In this paper, the nanoscale-confined crystalliza- tion behavior and crystallization kinetics in blends of double-crystalline polyethylene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PE-b-PEO) diblock copolymer with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A epoxy resin were investigated. The results showed that there appeared three crystallization regimes related to the crystallization of the PE block within three different microenvironments in the epoxy resin/PE-b-PEO blends. The Avrami index n is around 1.8–2.4, suggesting PE block of the copolymer in the blends exhibited nanoscale-confined crystallization behavior by homoge- neous nucleation. The PE block nanoscale-confined crystal- lization is ascribed to the formation of the strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding interaction between hy- droxyl groups of amine-cured epoxy and ether oxygen atoms of PEO, as seen from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra. Keywords Polymer blends . Polyethylene-block-poly (ethylene oxide) . Epoxy resin . Crystallization kinetics Introduction Molecular self-assembly in diblock copolymers can gener- ate a variety of microdomain (MD) structures (lamellae, hexagonally packed cylinders, body-centered cubic spheres, and gyroids) depending on the volume fraction of the block chain and the segregation power. Because the MD size is usually on the order of the radius of gyration of the block chains, these domains offer a nanoscaled template wherein the dynamics and structural changes associated with the phase transformation can be drastically different from those in the bulk homopolymers. The crystallization behavior of block copolymers has gained significant attention during the last decades. Since crystallization is an ordering process, formation of crystals within the microdomains would gen- erate a structure of “order-within-order”, where the forma- tion of the hard (crystalline) phase may be effectively templated by the long-range ordered soft phase, a process that closely mimics the biomineralization [1–3]. Crystallization behavior and structure formation of crys- talline block copolymers in polymer blends have provoked considerable interests [4–10]. Hillmyer and Bates’ s research have shown that amphiphilic diblock copolymers are able to form well-defined ordered and disordered nanostructures in thermosetting epoxy resins as well as in cross-linked phe- nolic resins [3, 4]. While Meng et al. [10] proposed that the formation of ordered nanostructures in thermosets with am- phiphilic bi- and triblock copolymer can be prepared through reaction-induced microphase separation. In the blends containing crystalline block copolymers, the melt morphology and the domain size may be changed depend- ing on the blend ratio. It has been shown that nanostructured thermoset [5, 8] blends can be obtained with double- crystalline polyethylene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PE-b- PEO) consisting of a thermoset-miscible block and a thermoset-immiscible block. Crystallization of block copolymers within nanoscale- confined microdomains has been studied in crystalline- amorphous diblock copolymers as well as in diblock copol- ymer [6, 7]/homopolymer blends [2]. It has been shown that crystallization of crystallizable blocks for crystalline- amorphous diblock copolymers can be efficiently confined Y. Hongling (*) : W. Xilin : W. Ting : L. Heng : Z. Baicun Research and Development Center for Advanced Sports Materials, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China e-mail: yihl@ecust.edu.cn Colloid Polym Sci (2012) 290:1347–1352 DOI 10.1007/s00396-012-2660-8