title: Complex liquid-crystal nanostructures in semiflexible ABC linear triblock copolymers: A self-consistent field theory.
abstract: We show that two series of ABC linear triblock copolymers possess sequences of order-to-order phase transitions between microphase-separated states, as the degree of flexibility of the semiflexible middle B-blocks varies. The spatial and orientational symmetries of these phases, some of them containing liquid-crystal ordering, are analysed in comparison with related structures previously determined experimentally and theoretically. A theoretical framework based on the self-consistent field treatment of the wormlike-chain model, which incorporates the Flory-Huggins and Maier-Saupe interactions in the free energy, is used here as a basic foundation for numerical calculations. We suggest that tuning the flexibility parameter, which reduces to the concept of degree of polymerization in the coil-like limit and characterizes the chain-persistency in the rod-like limit, provides a promising approach that can be used to design the resulting microphase-separated structures in semiflexible copolymer melts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325035, China.
authors.forename: Shiben
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment and Center of Soft Matter Physics and its Applications, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeff Z Y
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Chen