title: Polydisperse star polymer solutions
abstract: We analyze the effect of polydispersity in the arm number on the effective interactions, structural correlations, and phase behavior of star polymers in a good solvent. The effective interaction potential between two star polymers with different arm numbers is derived using scaling theory. The resulting expression is tested against monomer-resolved molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the theoretical pair potential is in agreement with the simulation data in a much wider polydispersity range than other proposed potentials. We then use this pair potential as an input in a many-body theory to investigate polydispersity effects on the structural correlations and the phase diagram of dense star polymer solutions. In particular, we find that a polydispersity of 10%, which is typical in experimental samples, does not significantly alter previous findings for the phase diagram of monodisperse solutions.
authors: Institut fur Theoretische Physik II, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, Universitatsstrasse 1, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.
authors: von Ferber C
authors: A
authors: Jusufi
authors: M
authors: Watzlawek
authors: CN
authors: Likos
authors: H
authors: Lowen