Monte Carlo Simulation of Adsorption of Di-Block Copolymers

In this paper we are concerned with the morphology of the polymers adsorbedon surfaces, in particular di-block copolymers. Our work is motivated by the experimental findings of Fladziioannou et al. [1] on the steric forces between two adsorbed layers of di-block poly(vinyl-2-pyridine)\ polystyrene (PV2P\ PS) copolymer on mica surfaces. The PV2P block binds strongly on the mica surfaces and the PS block extends into thesolvent toluene (good solvent for PS). Hadziiouannou et al. found that the repulsive forces between the two surfaces start at a distance 1) larger than 10 times the radius of gyration RG of a free P' in toluene. Furthermore, the starting distance D increases with increasing degree of polymerization N of PS in a fashion I) ~ Na with a close to I. We,tudy the adsorption of di-block copolymer with Monte Carlo simulations. The Monte Carlo simulations are especially powerful in dealing with kinetics which is important in systems where hysteresis is observed II1 and cannot be appropriately taken into account by analytical (or numerical) calculations based onequilibrium assumptions.