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Controlling the self-assembly of binary copolymer mixtures in solution through molecular architecture
- Source :
- Macromolecules, 2011, 44 (13), pp 5510-5519
- Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- We present a combined experimental and theoretical study on the role of copolymer architecture in the self-assembly of binary PEO-PCL mixtures in water-THF, and show that altering the chain geometry and composition of the copolymers can control the form of the self-assembled structures and lead to the formation of novel aggregates. First, using transmission electron microscopy and turbidity measurements, we study a mixture of sphere-forming and lamella-forming PEO-PCL copolymers, and show that increasing the molecular weight of the lamella-former at a constant ratio of its hydrophilic and hydrophobic components leads to the formation of highly-curved structures even at low sphere-former concentrations. This result is explained using a simple argument based on the effective volumes of the two sections of the diblock and is reproduced in a coarse-grained mean-field model: self-consistent field theory (SCFT). Using further SCFT calculations, we study the distribution of the two copolymer species within the individual aggregates and discuss how this affects the self-assembled structures. We also investigate a binary mixture of lamella-formers of different molecular weights, and find that this system forms vesicles with a wall thickness intermediate to those of the vesicles formed by the two copolymers individually. This result is also reproduced using SCFT. Finally, a mixture of sphere-former and a copolymer with a large hydrophobic block is shown to form a range of structures, including novel elongated vesicles.<br />Comment: 29 pages double-spaced including 11 figures, submitted to Macromolecules
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- Macromolecules, 2011, 44 (13), pp 5510-5519
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1104.2494
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1021/ma2008546