Synthesis and self-assembly of thermotropic block copolymer with long alkyl tethered cage silsesquioxane in the side chain
(2653–2664)Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer  Chemistry 49 #12 (2011)
Ishida et al of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, develped thermotropic POSS-containing poly(methacrylate) with long alkyl chain tethered polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) in the side chain and the block copolymers (PMMA-b-PMAC11POSS) through living anionic polymerization.  The resulting polymers indicated a phase transition temperature at 112 °C from spherocrystal to isotropic phase.  The POSS-containing polymer segments tended to form matrix of microphase-separated nanostructures in the bulk even in the very low volume fraction, for instance, PMMA cylindrical nanostructure was obtained by PMMA175-b-PMAC11POSS11 (ϕPMAC11POSS= 0.44). The control of thin film morphology was carried out by not only solvent annealing, but also thermal annealing, resulting in the formation of well-ordered dot- and fingerprint-type nanostructures. This is the first report in a series of POSS-containing block polymers that are capable for thermal annealing to generate well-ordered microphase-separated nanostructures in thin films. The novel thermotropic POSS-containing block copolymer offers a promising material for block copolymer lithography.  (RDC 5/24/2011)

Synthesis and characterization of star-shaped block copolymers with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)core via ATRP
(863-872) Polymer Bulletin 65 #9 (2010)
Wang et al of Hefei University of Technology, China prepared star-shaped PMMA-b-PS block copolymers with POSS coreby atom transfer radical polymerization of St using star-shaped POSS/PMMA-Cl as a macroinitiator in presence of CuCl, 2,2,-bipyridine, toluene at 110 °C.  The core-first method, which used an active multifunctional core to initiate the growth of polymer chains, was applicable to making star-shaped block copolymers with POSS core. (RDC 1/28/2011).

Preparation, morphology, and ultra-low dielectric constants of benzoxazine-based polymers/polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanocomposites 
(5567-5575) Polymer 51 #23 (2010)
Tseng and Liu of , Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan copolymerized furan-containing benzoxazine compounds and methylmethacrylate-POSS (MMA-POSS). resultin in nanocomposites having 0 to 70 wt% MMA-POSS fractions and 0 to 28 wt%  POSS fractions.  The high contents of MMA-POSS of the nanocomposites result in a reduction of their dielectric constants to 2.3. Moreover, some nanocomposites have POSS forming nanometer lamellar structure. This POSS orientation further reduces the dielectric constants to1.9. (RDC 12/17/2010)