Disorder to Order Transition and Ordered Morphology of Coil-Comb Block Copolymer by Self-Consistent Field Theory.
The disorder to order transition and the ordered patterns near the disordered state of coil-comb copolymer A-b-(B m + 1-g-C m ) are investigated by the self-consistent field theory. The phase diagrams of coil-comb copolymer are obtained by varying the composition of the copolymer with the side chain number m = 1, 2, and 3. The disorder to order transition is far more complex compared with the comb copolymer or linear block copolymer. As the side chain number m increases, the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter of disorder to order transition (DOT) increases and the lowest DOT occurs when the volume fractions of blocks A, B, and C are approximately equal. When one component is the minority, the disorder to order transition curve is similar with binary copolymer, but the curve shows the asymmetric property. The comb copolymer is more stable with larger side chain number m and shorter side chain. The ordered patterns from the disordered state are discussed. The results are helpful for designing coil-comb copolymers and obtaining the ordered morphology.
Key Laboratory of High Performance Polymer Materials and Technology of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China.
Zhibin
Z
Jiang
Zhiyuan
Z
Qian
Hong
H
Yang
Rong
R
Wang