Effect of added homopolymer on the hexagonal phase formed by cylindrical block copolymer micelles in a selective solvent

Sayeed Abbas, Christina D. Cowman, Timothy P. Lodge

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of addition of A homopolymer chains to HEX phases formed by cylindrical micelles obtained by dissolving an AB diblock copolymers in an A selective solvent was investigated. The following general trends were observed: (i) order-order transitions from HEX → Gyroid (G) → Lamellae (LAM); (ii) the inter-cylinder spacing of the HEX phase increased; (iii) when the homopolymer molecular weight and concentration was high, macrophase separation of the system occurred. The A homopolymer chains do not mix significantly with the A domain of the diblock due to excluded volume interactions, causing the corona chain brush to contract. As a result, order-order transitions that reduce the interfacial curvature are observed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)352-361
Number of pages10
JournalMacromolecular Rapid Communications
Volume30
Issue number4-5
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 18 2009

Keywords

  • Block copolymer
  • Depletion interactions
  • Micelles
  • Order-order transition
  • Selective solvent

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