화학공학소재연구정보센터
Macromolecules, Vol.51, No.5, 2110-2124, 2018
A Detailed Examination of the Topological Constraints of Lamellae-Forming Block Copolymers
A microscopic molecular model of polymeric molecules that captures the effects of topological constraints is used to consider how microphase segregation can alter the distribution of entanglements both in space and along chain contours. Such topological constraints are obtained by using the Z1 algorithm, and it is found that for diblock copolymers in the lamellar morphology they are not homogeneously distributed, but instead exhibit a spatial dependence as a consequence of the self-organization of the polymer blocks. The specific shape of the inhomogeneous distribution is affected by the molecular weight of the copolymer. The microscopic information obtained by these calculations is then compared with the corresponding results generated from a coarser description of entangled block copolymers that includes soft intermolecular interactions and slip-springs, whose role is to incorporate the effects of entanglements that are lost during coarse-graining. This comparison is helpful for improving coarse-grained simulation approaches for use in multiscale studies of large-scale, self-assembled multicomponent polymer systems.