title: Phase behavior of binary blends of diblock copolymer/homopolymer confined in spherical nanopores.
abstract: Binary blends of a diblock copolymer (AB) and an incompatible homopolymer (C) confined in spherical cavities are studied using a simulated annealing technique. The phase behavior of the blends is examined for four typical cases, representing the different selectivity of the pore surface to the A, B, and C species. The internal morphology of the spherical polymeric particles is controlled by the homopolymer volume fraction, the degree of confinement, and the composition of the copolymer. Inside a particle, the homopolymers segregate to form one or, under some conditions, two domains; thus, the homopolymers may act as an additional controlling parameter of the shape and symmetry of the copolymer domain. A rich array of confinement-induced novel diblock copolymer morphologies is predicted. In particular, core-shell particles with the copolymers as the shell wrapping around a homopolymer core or a copolymer-homopolymer combined core and Janus-like particles with the copolymers and the homopolymers on different sides are obtained.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Rongqiao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: An-Chang
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shi