Depletion interactions: A new control parameter for the self-assembly of diblock copolymer micelles

Sayeed Abbas, Timothy P. Lodge

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Small angle neutron scattering was performed on disordered mixtures of nonadsorbing homopolymer (A) chains and diblock (A-B) copolymer micelles in an A selective solvent. Increasing the molecular weight or concentration of A led to an increase in the aggregation number, and a decrease in the effective hard-sphere diameter of the micelles. Furthermore an intermicellar attractive force developed, which was successfully modeled by the Asakura-Oosawa depletion potential. Via an alternative model we also extracted information about mesoscopic clusters of micelles formed due to this attractive force.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number137802
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume99
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 28 2007

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