title: Ordering and reverse ordering mechanisms of triblock copolymers in the presence of solvent.
abstract: Self-consistent field theory is used to study the self-assembly of a triblock copolymer melt. Two different external factors (temperature and solvent) are shown to affect the self-assembly. Either one or two-step self-assembly can be found as a function of temperature in the case of a neat triblock melt, or as a function of increasing solvent content (for non-selective solvents) in the case of a triblock-solvent mixture. For selective solvents, it is shown that increasing the solvent content leads to more complicated self-assembly mechanisms, including a reversed transition where order is found to increase instead of decreasing as expected, and re-entrant behavior where order is found to increase at first, and then decrease to a previous state of disorder.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maniadis
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Kim O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors.forename: Russell B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Edward M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Kober
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D012997:Solvents