scholarly journals Phase Behavior of Melts of Diblock-Copolymers with One Charged Block

Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey A. Gavrilov ◽  
Alexander V. Chertovich ◽  
Igor I. Potemkin

In this work, we investigated the phase behavior of melts of block-copolymers with one charged block by means of dissipative particle dynamics with explicit electrostatic interactions. We assumed that all the Flory–Huggins χ parameters were equal to 0. We showed that the charge- correlation attraction solely can cause microphase separation with a long-range order; a phase diagram was constructed by varying the volume fraction of the uncharged block and the electrostatic interaction parameter λ (dimensionless Bjerrum length). The obtained phase diagram was compared to the phase diagram of “equivalent” neutral diblock-copolymers with the non-zero χ-parameter between the beads of different blocks. The neutral copolymers were constructed by grafting the counterions to the corresponding co-ions of the charged block with further switching off the electrostatic interactions. Surprisingly, the differences between these phase diagrams are rather subtle; the same phases in the same order are observed, and the positions of the order-disorder transition ODT points are similar if the λ-parameter is considered as an “effective” χ-parameter. Next, we studied the position of the ODT for lamellar structure depending on the chain length N. It turned out that while for the uncharged diblock copolymer the product χcrN was almost independent of N, for the diblock copolymers with one charged block we observed a significant increase in λcrN upon increasing N. This can be attributed to the fact that the counterion entropy prevents the formation of ordered structures, and its influence is more pronounced for longer chains since they undergo the transition to ordered structures at smaller values of λ, when the electrostatic energy becomes comparable to kbT. This was supported by studying the ODT in diblock-copolymers with charged blocks and counterions cross-linked to the charged monomer units. The ODT for such systems was observed at significantly lower values of λ, with the difference being more pronounced at longer chain lengths N. The fact that the microphase separation is observed even at zero Flory–Huggins parameter can be used for the creation of “high-χ” copolymers: The incorporation of charged groups (for example, ionic liquids) can significantly increase the segregation strength. The diffusion of counterions in the obtained ordered structures was studied and compared to the case of a system with the same number of charged groups but a homogeneous structure; the diffusion coefficient along the lamellar plane was found to be higher than in any direction in the homogeneous structure.

e-Polymers ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Juan Su ◽  
Ze-Xin Ma ◽  
Jian-Hua Huang

AbstractDissipative particle dynamics simulations are performed to study the self-assembly of rod-coil (RC) diblock copolymers confined in a slit with two coil-selective surfaces. The effect of rod length and slit thickness on the assembly structure is investigated. A morphological phase diagram as a function of slit thickness and rod length is presented. We observe several ordered structures, such as perpendicular cylinders, parallel cylinders, and puck-shaped structure. In the assembly structures, long-range rod-rod orientational order is observed when the rod length exceeds a critical rod length. Our results show that the coil-selective slit influences the assembly structure as well as the rod orientation of RC diblock copolymers.


1991 ◽  
Vol 248 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Marko ◽  
Y. Rabin

AbstractThe microphase segregation properties of diblock copolymers composed of a neutral polymer joined to a polyelectrolyte are described. For weakly charged diblocks under melt conditions, we have constructed a theory of weak concentration fluctuations and have used it to study the spinodal instabiity to microphase separation that is driven by incompatibility of the polyion and neutral blocks. As in polyelectrolyte melts, the charging has a strong compatibilizing effect because of the large counterion entropy cost of phase separation. The electrostatic interactions also introduce a new length scale, the Debye screening length, which competes with the free chain radius to determine the microphase wavelength. A scaling theory of the strongly-segregated phase indicates that the salt-free microphases cannot have sharp interfaces beyond a threshold number of charges per chain.


Soft Matter ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (33) ◽  
pp. 6278-6285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huihui Wu ◽  
Linli He ◽  
Xianghong Wang ◽  
Yanwei Wang ◽  
Zhouting Jiang

Liquid crystalline assembly of rod–coil diblock copolymers blended with homopolymers is investigated by dissipative particle dynamics simulation, considering systematically the effect of the interactions between rods and coils, volume fraction and length of added coil or rod homopolymers.


2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (22) ◽  
pp. 8391-8399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Mackay ◽  
Ye Hong ◽  
Miyoun Jeong ◽  
Brian M. Tande ◽  
Norman J. Wagner ◽  
...  

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 819
Author(s):  
Yu Shao ◽  
Hui Dai ◽  
Meng Zhao ◽  
Bin Li ◽  
Jianan Yao ◽  
...  

Fluorocontaining polymers bearing special properties are unique and important materials in modern society. In this work, we focused on the phase behavior and phase diagram of poly(styrene-block-perfluorooctylethyl acrylate) with a volume fraction varying from 0.2 to 0.8. Small-angle X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy showed the phase formation in the sequence of hexagonally packed cylinders (HEX) to lamellar layers (LAM) to inverse hexagonally packed cylinders (iHEX) in this series of block polymers. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction experiments proved that the fluorodomains of the LAM phases and the matrix of iHEX phases contained layered structures formed by the crystallization of fluorosegments. During heating, the self-assembled lattice remained intact even after the melting of fluorodomain, with barely changed lattice parameters. Such hierarchical structural formation was understood by chain conformation and domain interaction, which may provide new insight into the molecular design of advanced materials.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1516
Author(s):  
Dongmei Liu ◽  
Kai Gong ◽  
Ye Lin ◽  
Tao Liu ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
...  

We investigated the interfacial properties of symmetric ternary An/AmBm/Bn and An/Am/2BmAm/2/Bn polymeric blends by means of dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. We systematically analyzed the effects of composition, chain length, and concentration of the copolymers on the interfacial tensions, interfacial widths, and the structures of each polymer component in the blends. Our simulations show that: (i) the efficiency of the copolymers in reducing the interfacial tension is highly dependent on their compositions. The triblock copolymers are more effective in reducing the interfacial tension compared to that of the diblock copolymers at the same chain length and concentration; (ii) the interfacial tension of the blends increases with increases in the triblock copolymer chain length, which indicates that the triblock copolymers with a shorter chain length exhibit a better performance as the compatibilizers compared to that of their counterparts with longer chain lengths; and (iii) elevating the triblock copolymer concentration can promote copolymer enrichment at the center of the interface, which enlarges the width of the phase interfaces and reduces the interfacial tension. These findings illustrate the correlations between the efficiency of copolymer compatibilizers and their detailed molecular parameters.


Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1262
Author(s):  
Mikhail A. Osipov ◽  
Maxim V. Gorkunov ◽  
Alexander A. Antonov

Density functional theory of rod-coil diblock copolymers, developed recently by the authors, has been generalised and used to study the liquid crystal ordering and microphase separation effects in the hexagonal, lamellar and nematic phases. The translational order parameters of rod and coil monomers and the orientational order parameters of rod-like fragments of the copolymer chains have been determined numerically by direct minimization of the free energy. The phase diagram has been derived containing the isotropic, the lamellar and the hexagonal phases which is consistent with typical experimental data. The order parameter profiles as functions of temperature and the copolymer composition have also been determined in different anisotropic phases. Finally, the spatial distributions of the density of rigid rod fragments and of the corresponding orientational order parameter in the hexagonal phase have been calculated.


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