Complex Spherical Micelles in A−B−C-Block Copolymer Melts

Spherical micelles with complex inner structure in A−B−C-triblock copolymer melts with NA + NB ≪ NC are considered in strong and superstrong segregation limits. It is assumed that blocks of polymer chain are different in length and strongly incompatible. One of the particular systems which we have in mind is a melt of B−C-block copolymer (NB ≪ NC) with strongly associative A-groups at the end of B-block. In this case the formation of A-aggregates occurs inside the B-micelle, which is assumed in this paper to be spherical in shape. The inner structure of the B-micelle can be complicated. It is possible to distinguish between two principally different cases: (i) all A-blocks form a single aggregate at the center of the B-micelle and (ii) the A-aggregates form a certain structure inside the core of the B-micelle. It has been shown that, depending on the external parameters (such as temperature, monomer interaction parameters, block length, and monomer unit length), the characteristics of the B-micelle (aggr...