title: Soft confinement-induced morphologies of diblock copolymers.
abstract: The self-assembly of diblock copolymers under soft confinement is studied systematically using a simulated annealing method applied to a lattice model of polymers. The soft confinement is realized by the formation of polymer droplets in a poor solvent environment. Multiple sequences of soft confinement-induced copolymer aggregates with different shapes and self-assembled internal morphologies are predicted as functions of solvent-polymer interaction and the monomer concentration. It is discovered that the self-assembled internal morphology of the aggregates is largely controlled by a competition between the bulk morphology of the copolymer and the solvent-polymer interaction, and the shape of the aggregates can be non-spherical when the internal morphology is anisotropic and the solvent-polymer interaction is weak. These results demonstrate that droplets of diblock copolymers formed in poor solvents can be used as a model system to study the self-assembly of copolymers under soft confinement.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of the Ministry of Education, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: An-Chang
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shi