Simulated annealing study of diblock copolymer thin films confined between two homogeneous surfaces.
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.
Yin
Yuhua
Y
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.
Sun
Pingchuan
P
Chen
Tiehong
T
Li
Baohui
B
Jin
Qinghua
Q
Ding
Datong
D
Shi
An-Chang
AC