Ordering and reverse ordering mechanisms of triblock copolymers in the presence of solvent.
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.
Maniadis
Panagiotis
P
Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
Rasmussen
Kim O
KO
Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
Thompson
Russell B
RB
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Kober
Edward M
EM
Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
D011108:Polymers; D012997:Solvents