화학공학소재연구정보센터
Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.695, 170-175, 2018
Study of structural morphologies of thermoresponsive diblock AB and triblock BAB copolymers (A = poly(N- isopropylacrylamide), B = polystyrene)
Structural morphologies of diblock AB and triblock BAB copolymers (A = poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), B = polystyrene) in aqueous environment have been investigated by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD). In triblock copolymers insoluble PS blocks contract while soluble pNIPAM blocks stay at the periphery forming looped chains as corona. As the temperature is increased there is a continuous morphological transition and micelles form ellipsoidal structures with segregated polymer zones. The phase transition of looped pNIPAM chains occurs at lower temperature than for linear chains and within broader temperature range. It is discussed how the chain topology of pNIPAM affects the phase transition. (C) 2018 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.