Related papers: Theory of copolymer micellization
We present few ordering mechanisms in block copolymer melts in the coarse-graining approach. For chemically homogeneous or modulated confining surfaces, the surface ordering is investigated above and below the order-disorder temperature. In…
Biomolecular condensates formed through the phase separation of proteins and nucleic acids are widely observed, offering a fundamental means of organizing intracellular materials in a membrane-less fashion. Traditionally, these condensates…
Self-Consistent Field Theory is applied to a film of cylindrical-forming block copolymer subject to a surface field which tends to align the cylinders parallel to electrical plates, and to an external electric field tending to align them…
The derivation of density functional energies from the random phase approximation of self-consistent mean field theory is generalized and applied to a binary blend of diblock copolymers and homopolymers. A nonlocal transformation is…
If many micelles adsorb onto the same polymer molecule then they are said to form a necklace. A minimal model of such a necklace is proposed and shown to be almost equivalent to a 1-dimensional fluid with nearest-neighbour interactions. The…
The structural and thermodynamic properties of mixtures of colloidal spheres and non-adsorbing polymer chains are studied within a novel general two-component macromolecular liquid state approach applicable for all size asymmetry ratios.…
The self-consistent field theory is a popular and highly successful theoretical framework for studying equilibrium (co)polymer systems at the mesoscopic level. Dynamic density functionals allow one to use this framework for studying…
We carry out numerical simulations of vesicle formation based on the density functional theory for block copolymer solutions. It is shown by solving the time evolution equations for concentrations that a polymer vesicle is spontaneously…
We compare two theoretical approaches to dielectric diblock copolymer melts in an external electric field. The first is a relatively simple analytic expansion in the relative copolymer concentration, and includes the full electrostatic…
We study both experimentally and theoretically the self-assembly of binary block copolymers in dilute solution, where self-assembly is triggered by changing the solvent from the common good solvent THF to the selective solvent water, and…
The phase behaviour of amphiphilic multiblock copolymers with a large number of blocks in semidilute solutions is studied by lattice Monte Carlo simulations. The influence on the resulting structures of the concentration, the solvent…
We review a recently developed micellization theory, which is based on a free-energy approach and offers several advantages over the conventional one, based on mass action and rate equations. As all the results are derived from a single…
We derive the mean-field theory of disordered block-copolymers composed of two monomeric species, combining Edwards' functional method with the replica technique of disordered systems. In the absence of disorder we recover the canonical…
During the last 3 years, our group has investigated extensively the complexation mechanism between neutral-polyelectrolyte block copolymers with oppositely charged species. These species are surfactant micelles, multivalent counterions and…
Based on the conventional energy band theory, an approach is presented to describe the electronic structure of crystalline insulators in the presence of a finite homogeneous electric field. The expression of polarization is derived which…
The presence of nanoparticles in a diblock copolymer leads to changes in the morphology and properties of the matrix and can produce highly organized hybrid materials. The resulting material properties depend not only on the polymer…
Recent developments in off-lattice self-consistent field theories for inhomogeneous complex fluids are reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to the treatment of intermolecular interactions and compressibility, to the role of fluctuations,…
We analyze the energetics of sphere-like micellar phases in diblock copolymers in terms of well-studied, geometric quantities for their lattices. We argue that the A15 lattice with Pm3n symmetry should be favored as the blocks become more…
We propose a field-theoretical approach to a polymer system immersed in an ideal mixture of clustering centers. The system contains several species of these clustering centers with different functionality, each of which connects a fixed…
Using the self-consistent field lattice model, polymer concentration $\bar{\phi}_{{P}}$ and chain length $N$ (keeping the length ratio of hydrophobic to hydrophilic blocks constant) the effects on temperature-dependent behavior of micelles…