Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 38: Modeling and Simulation of Soft Matter II (joint session CPP/DY)

CPP 38.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 10:15–10:30, C 230

Process-directed assembly of copolymer materials — •Marcus Müller — Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Göttingen, Germany

Process-directed self-assembly of block copolymers refers to rapid thermodynamic processes that reproducibly direct the kinetics of structure formation from a starting, unstable state into a selected, metastable mesostructure. We investigate the kinetics of self-assembly of linear block copolymers after different rapid changes of thermodynamic control parameters (e.g., photochemical transformations, stretching or mechanical deformation, or pressure changes). These thermodynamic processes convert an initial, equilibrium mesophase of the copolymer material into a well-defined but unstable, starting state. The spontaneous structure formation that ensues from this unstable state becomes trapped in a metastable mesostructure, and we systematically explore, which metastable mesostructures can be fabricated by varying the physical properties of the copolymers in the starting and final state and a step-shear deformation. In addition to the equilibrium mesophases of linear AB diblock copolymers, this diagram of process-accessible states includes multiple, novel, metastable periodic mesostructures; inter alia, Schoen's F-RD periodic minimal surface. Strategies and challenges for studying process-directed self- assembly by particle-based simulations and self-consistent field theory are discussed and the role of non-equilibrium chain conformations and the diffusive dynamics is highlighted.