Computational Study of Mechanochemical Activation in Nanostructured Triblock Copolymers.

ABSTRACT: Force-driven chemical reactions have emerged as an attractive platform for diverse applications in polymeric materials. However, the microscopic chain conformations and topologies necessary for efficiently transducing macroscopic forces to the molecular scale are not well-understood. In this work, we use a coarse-grained model to investigate the impact of network-like topologies on mechanochemical activation in self-assembled triblock copolymers. We find that mechanochemical activation during tensile deformation depends strongly on both the polymer composition and chain conformation in these materials. Activation primarily occurs in the tie chains connecting different glassy domains and in loop chains that are hooked onto each other by physical entanglements. Activation also requires a hig

SUBMITTER: Huo Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9756960 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature