Self-assembly of mixtures of amphiphilic AB diblock copolymers and solvophobic BC diblock copolymers in selective solvents was investigated by dissipative particle dynamics simulations.A series of aggregates such as multicompartment micelles were observed.Density profiles of the aggregates were plotted to gain insight into the details of the aggregates.It was found that the BC block copolymers mainly occupy the cores of the aggregates to increase the hierarchy of the structures.Effects of copolymer concentration and block length on the aggregates were studied.As the concentration of BC diblock copolymers increases
a morphological transformation from vesicles to cylindrical micelles and then to spherical multicompartment micelles occurs.At high concentration of BC diblock copolymers
the number of concentric layers within spherical micelles was found to be significantly dependent on the concentration of BC copolymers.By tuning the block length of C block length
both the concentric and nonconcentric multicompartment micelles were found.In addition to the morphological studies
the dynamic process was further analyzed with Minkowski functionals.The results show that the formation of multicompartment micelles is a hierarchical process of self-assembly.During the self-assembly
the large-length-scale structures are first formed
and then the small-length-scale structures within the cores gradually appears.The present simulation results could provide in-depth information about the mechanism behind the formation of multicompartment micelles from mixtures of amphiphilic and solvophobic copolymers
and also could provide guide for preparation of controllable structures for advanced functional nano-devices.
Preparation and Morphology Control of Highly Ordered Nanoporous Films from Block Copolymers
Self-assenbly Behavior of Coil-Rod-Coil Triblock Copolymers in Selective Solvents
SHAPED CORE-SHELL NANOPARTICLES PREPARED FROM SELF-ASSEMBLY OF BLOCK COPOLYMERS
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Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advance Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taishan University
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing National Laboratory of Microstructures, Key Laboratory of High Performance Polymer Materials and Technology of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Nanjing University
Beijing Key Laboratory of Membrane Materials and Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University
College of Physics and Electronic Information, Wenzhou University