Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 27: Polymer Self Assembly

CPP 27.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 12:15–12:30, ZEU 160

Simulation of the co-continuous mesophases in mixtures of triblock copolymers and polymers — •Alexei Karatchentsev and Jens-Uwe Sommer — Leibniz-Institut fuer Polymerforschung, 01069 Dresden, Germany

We model a linear ABA triblock copolymer as a chain of three soft spheres with fluctuating radii of gyration and the distances between their centers of mass [1], [2]. The probability distribution functions for all these quantities that describe a state of the whole molecule were derived in the previous work [1] within the underlying Gaussian chain model. The kinetics of the mesophase separation is driven by a Monte-Carlo algorithm. We simulate the gyroid phase in pure triblock copolymer melts and study in detail its region of stability. Then, we show that adding polymer molecules modeled as soft spheres can stabilize the gyroid structure in triblock copolymer melts and increase its region of stability over that in the pure triblock copolymer systems.

[1] F. Eurich, A. Karatchentsev, J. Baschnagel, W. Dieterich, and P. Maass, J. Chem. Phys. 127, 134905 (2007)

[2] A. Karatchentsev and J.-U. Sommer, "Simulations of the gyroid phase in diblock copolymers with the Gaussian Disphere Model", accepted in J. Chem. Phys.