title: Self-Assembled Morphologies of Linear and Miktoarm Star Triblock Copolymer Monolayers.
abstract: Monolayers of linear and miktoarm star ABC triblock copolymers with equal A and C blocks were investigated using self-consistent field theory. Monolayers of ABC triblock copolymers were formed between two parallel surfaces that were attractive to the A and C blocks. The repulsive interaction parameter χACN between the A and C blocks was chosen to be weaker than the A/B and B/C interactions, quantified by χABN and χBCN, respectively, such that the B blocks were confined at the A/C interface, resulting in various B domains with different geometries and arrangements. It was observed that two variables, namely, the strength of the surface fields and the film thickness, were dominant factors controlling the self-assembly of the B blocks into various morphologies. For the linear triblock copolymers, the morphologies of the B domains included disks, stripes (parallel cylinders), and hexagonal networks (inverse disks). For the miktoarm star triblock copolymers, the competition between the tendency to align the junction points along a straight line and the constraint on their arrangement from the surface interactions led to richer ordered morphologies. As a result of the packing of the junction points of the ABC miktoarm star copolymers, a counterintuitive phase sequence from low-curvature phases to high-curvature phases with increasing length of B block was predicted. The study indicates that the self-assembly of monolayers of ABC triblock copolymers provides an interesting platform for engineering novel morphologies.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Hanlin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5133-0267
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University , Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1.
authors.forename: An-Chang
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1379-7162
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shi