Microphase Boundaries and Chain Conformations in Multiply Branched Diblock Copolymers

1999 ◽  
Vol 32 (20) ◽  
pp. 6831-6836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amalie Frischknecht ◽  
G. H. Fredrickson
2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 2637-2646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Bekhradnia ◽  
Jakob Stensgaard Diget ◽  
Thomas Zinn ◽  
Kaizheng Zhu ◽  
Sverre Arne Sande ◽  
...  

1995 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 736-750
Author(s):  
Tereza Vrbová ◽  
Zuzana Limpouchová ◽  
Karel Procházka

Conformations of symmetric diblock copolymers AB in dilute solutions in good and selective solvents were studied by Monte Carlo simulations on a simple cubic lattice. Individual chain conformations were created by the self-avoiding walk algorithm. A modified thermal equilibration of the system based on the Metropolis acceptance criteria for energies of the system and the Rosenbluth weights of chain conformations was applied. Interactions of the nearest neighbours (r = l), where l is the lattice distance, and interactions for r = sqrt(2l) and r = sqrt(3l) were considered. Various structural characteristics of the whole copolymer chain and individual blocks A, B were obtained in the course of computer simulations. It was found that a moderate contraction of the worse soluble block B and a certain segregation of blocks occurs in dilute solutions in selective solvents for the block A, however neither that contraction, nor the segregation of blocks are extensive.


Author(s):  
S.D. Smith ◽  
R.J. Spontak ◽  
D.H. Melik ◽  
S.M. Buehler ◽  
K.M. Kerr ◽  
...  

When blended together, homopolymers A and B will normally macrophase-separate into relatively large (≫1 μm) A-rich and B-rich phases, between which exists poor interfacial adhesion, due to a low entropy of mixing. The size scale of phase separation in such a blend can be reduced, and the extent of interfacial A-B contact and entanglement enhanced, via addition of an emulsifying agent such as an AB diblock copolymer. Diblock copolymers consist of a long sequence of A monomers covalently bonded to a long sequence of B monomers. These materials are surface-active and decrease interfacial tension between immiscible phases much in the same way as do small-molecule surfactants. Previous studies have clearly demonstrated the utility of block copolymers in compatibilizing homopolymer blends and enhancing blend properties such as fracture toughness. It is now recognized that optimization of emulsified ternary blends relies upon design considerations such as sufficient block penetration into a macrophase (to avoid block slip) and prevention of a copolymer multilayer at the A-B interface (to avoid intralayer failure).


Author(s):  
David M. Anderson ◽  
Tomas Landh

First discovered in surfactant-water liquid crystalline systems, so-called ‘bicontinuous cubic phases’ have the property that hydropnilic and lipophilic microdomains form interpenetrating networks conforming to cubic lattices on the scale of nanometers. Later these same structures were found in star diblock copolymers, where the simultaneous continuity of elastomeric and glassy domains gives rise to unique physical properties. Today it is well-established that the symmetry and topology of such a morphology are accurately described by one of several triply-periodic minimal surfaces, and that the interface between hydrophilic and hydrophobic, or immiscible polymer, domains is described by a triply-periodic surface of constant, nonzero mean curvature. One example of such a dividing surface is shown in figure 5.The study of these structures has become of increasing importance in the past five years for two reasons:1)Bicontinuous cubic phase liquid crystals are now being polymerized to create microporous materials with monodispersed pores and readily functionalizable porewalls; figure 3 shows a TEM from a polymerized surfactant / methylmethacrylate / water cubic phase; and2)Compelling evidence has been found that these same morphologies describe biomembrane systems in a wide range of cells.


1990 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen-Gang Wang ◽  
S.A. Safran

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Ishibashi ◽  
Yan Fang ◽  
Julia Kalow

<p>Block copolymers are used to construct covalent adaptable networks that employ associative exchange chemistry (vitrimers). The resulting vitrimers display markedly different nanostructural, thermal and rheological properties relative to those of their statistical copolymer-derived counterparts. This study demonstrates that prepolymer sequence is a versatile strategy to modify the properties of vitrimers.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanchun Tang ◽  
Kohzo Ito ◽  
Hideaki Yokoyama

In this study, we prepared ultrafiltration membranes with a decoupled responses of filtration property to temperature and pH. The membrane preparation method was developed based on our previous work. We utilized methanol-supercritical carbon dioxide (methanol-scCO<sub>2</sub>) selective swelling method to introduce nanopores to block copolymers containing poly(diethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA), poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) and polystyrene (PS) blocks. Formation of the mesoporous barrier layer with PS being the mechanically stable part of the matrix was driven by selective swelling of the PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA-b-PDMAEMA domains. Due to the selective swelling of PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA or PDMAEMA domains to introduce pores, the interior of the pores are covered with PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA or PDMAEMA blocks after pore formation. The PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA-b-PDMAEMA polymer brushes are naturally attached on the pore walls and worked as functional gates. PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA is a non-toxic, neutral thermo-responsive polymer with LCST at 26 ᴼC. PDMAEMA is a typical weak polyelectrolyte with pK<sub>a</sub> value at 7.0-7.5 and also a thermo-responsive polymer revealed a LCST of 20-80 °C in aqueous solution. Therefore, these membranes were expected to have multi dimensions as function of the combination of temperature and pH. Moreover, to understand the detail of the temperature and pH depended conformation transitions of PMEO<sub>2</sub>MA-b-PDMAEMA brushes, those diblock copolymers were end-tethered on flat substrates and analyzed via neutron reflectivity (NR).


1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 2290-2304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Limpouchová ◽  
Karel Procházka

Monte Carlo simulations of chain conformations in a restricted spherical volume at relatively high densities of segments were performed for various numbers of chains, N, and chain lengths (number of segments), L, on a tetrahedral lattice. All chains are randomly end-tethered to the surface of the sphere. A relatively uniform surface density of the tethered ends is guaranteed in our simulations. A simultaneous self-avoiding walk of all chains creates starting conformations for a subsequent equilibration. A modified algorithm similar to that of Siepmann and Frenkel is used for the equilibration of the chain conformations. In this paper, only a geometrical excluded volume effect of segments is considered. Various structural and conformational characteristics, e.g. segment densities gS(r), free end densities gF(r) as functions of the position in the sphere (a distance from the center), distributions of the tethered-to-free end distances, ρTF(rTF), etc. are calculated and their physical meaning is discussed. The model is suitable for studies of chain conformations is swollen cores of multimolecular block copolymer micelles and for interpretation of non-radiative excitation energy migration in polymeric micellar systems.


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