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 fI = fS 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 or...