title: Simulated annealing study of diblock copolymer thin films confined between two homogeneous surfaces.
abstract: Thin films of symmetric diblock copolymers confined between two parallel surfaces have been systematically investigated by means of simulated annealing on a simple cubic lattice. The study was carried out for systems with different film thicknesses and surface-polymer interactions. Very regular equilibrium morphologies of lamella are formed in almost all cases. The dependence of lamellar orientations, total energy, chain-conformation entropy, and free energy of the confined films on the film thickness and the strength of surface-polymer interactions has been studied systematically. The influence of packing frustration on morphology is observed and the mechanisms of lamellar orientations are investigated.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials for Adsorption and Separation, Joint-research College of Nankai University, Tianjin University, Department of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Pingchuan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Tiehong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Datong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: An-Chang
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shi