Binary hard sphere mixtures in block copolymer melts
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Date
2002
Authors
Thompson, Russell B.
Lee, Jae Youn
Jasnow, David
Balazs, Anna C.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Physical Society
Abstract
We perform a self-consistent-field/density-functional-theory hybrid analysis for a system of diblock copoly- mers mixed with polydisperse, hard, spherical particles of various chemical species. We apply this theory to study the equilibrium morphologies of two different binary sphere/diblock melts. First, we examine the case where the particles have two different sizes, but both types are preferentially wetted by one of the copolymer blocks. We find that the single-particle distributions for the two species do not track one another and that the particles show a degree of entropically generated separation based on size, due to confinement within the diblock matrix. Second, we study the case where the particles are all the same size, but are of two different chemical species. We find that, as expected, the particle distributions reveal a degree of enthalpically driven separation, due to the spheres’ preferential affinities for different blocks of the copolymer.
Description
Keywords
hard spheres, nanocomposites, block copolymers, self-consistent field theory