Morphology of symmetric ABCD tetrablock quaterpolymers studied by Monte Carlo simulation.

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 = f_D and f_B = f_C, and the volume fraction of the two mid-blocks φ was defined as φ = f_B + f_C. 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]