The Leibler theory [L. Leibler, Macromolecules 13 1602 (1980)] for mi-crophase separation in AB block copolymer melts is generalized for systems with arbitrary topology of molecules. A diagrammatic technique for calculation of the monomeric correlation functions is developed. The free energies of various mesophases are calculated within the second-harmonic approximation. Model highly-branched t...

The phase behavior of poly(styrene-block-2-vinylpyridine) copolymer solutions in an imidazolium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonamide ([Im][TFSI]) ionic liquid has been studied using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and optical transmission characterization. Through scaling analysis of SAXS data, we demonstrate that the [Im][TFSI] ionic liquid behaves as a selective solvent toward one of the bloc...

Recent experiments on triblock copolymer melts suggest that polydispersity effects are dramatically enhanced when polydisperse blocks are constrained by both ends to the internal interfaces of an ordered morphology. To quantify the relevance of architecture, we compare BAB triblock and AB diblock copolymer melts with polydisperse A blocks and monodisperse B blocks, using self-consistent field t...

We study the effects of chirality at the segment scale on the thermodynamics of block copolymer melts using self-consistent field theory. In linear diblock melts where segments of one block prefer a twisted, or cholesteric, texture, we show that melt assembly is critically sensitive to the ratio of random coil size to the preferred pitch of cholesteric twist. For weakly chiral melts (large pitc...

We studied phase separation kinetics of block copolymer melts while passing them through alternate photo-induced bond breaking (on) and recombination (off) reaction cycles, discussed its effect on evolution morphologies, scaling functions, length.

Block copolymer melts have been previously used to control the position and alignment of anisotropic nanoparticles. In this work, 2D 3D mesoscopic simulations are explore phase behavior block copolymer/nanoparticle systems. The method combines a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau for polymer Brownian dynamics Rhomboidal spheroidal shaped particles simulated in two three dimensions, respectively. It...