1. Morphology of symmetric ABCD tetrablock quaterpolymers studied by Monte Carlo simulation.
- Author
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Jiro Suzuki, Atsushi Takano, and Yushu Matsushita
- Subjects
POLYMERS ,MONTE Carlo method ,SIMULATION methods & models ,FIELD theory (Physics) ,CURVATURE - Abstract
Morphology of symmetric ABCD tetrablock quaterpolymers in melt was studied by the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, where the volume fractions of the block chains, f, kept the relationships of f
A = fD and fB = fC , and the volume fraction of the two mid-blocks φ was defined as φ = fB + fC . Previous self-consistent field theory for ABCD reported morphological change including several structures; however, the scope was limited within a two-dimensional system. To the contrary, in this paper, MC simulations were carried out in three dimensions with changing the φ value finely, which resulted in finding a tetracontinuous structure in the range of 0.625 ⩽ φ ⩽ 0.75. Moreover the tetracontinuous structure has been found to be the gyroid structure, and the mean curvature of the B/C interface is nearly zero. We concluded that the B/C interface must be the Schoen gyroid surface, one of three-dimensional periodic minimal surfaces. The geometrical nature of the A/B interface should be equivalent to that of the C/D interface, and they stand as level surfaces to the Schoen gyroid surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2016
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