Hierarchical nanostructures self-assembled from a mixture system containing rod-coil block copolymers and rigid homopolymers.

ABSTRACT: Self-assembly behavior of a mixture system containing rod-coil block copolymers and rigid homopolymers was investigated by using Brownian dynamics simulations. The morphologies of formed hierarchical self-assemblies were found to be dependent on the Lennard-Jones (LJ) interaction εRR between rod blocks, lengths of rod and coil blocks in copolymer, and mixture ratio of block copolymers to homopolymers. As the εRR value decreases, the self-assembled structures of mixtures are transformed from an abacus-like structure to a helical structure, to a plain fiber, and finally are broken into unimers. The order parameter of rod blocks was calculated to confirm the structure transition. Through varying the length of rod and coil blocks, the regions of thermodynamic stability of abacus, helix, plain

SUBMITTER: Li Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4428031 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature