Abstract
High molecular weight block copolymers can be viewed as macromolecular surfactants when blended with thermodynamically incompatible homopolymers. This Letter describes the formation of polymeric bicontinuous microemulsions in mixtures containing a model diblock copolymer and two homopolymers. Although we attribute development of this equilibrium morphology to the effects of fluctuations, mean-field theory provides a quantitative strategy for preparing the bicontinuous state at blend compositions near an isotropic Lifshitz point.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 849-852 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 79 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 1997 |