Conveners
R1-5 Polymer Physics Theory (DCMMP) | Théorie physique des polymères (DPMCM)
- Robert Wickham
Previous work has demonstrated that multiblock block copolymers with designed architectures offer unlimited opportunities to obtain novel nanoscale structures. However, synthesizing multiblock copolymers with complex architectures is challenging and expensive. In this research we explore the possibility of using blends of simple copolymers with designed secondary interactions as an alternative...
There has been a growing interest in the study of deformation of a nanochannel confined polymer as it plays an important role in biological phenomena such as DNA mapping, DNA condensation, protein folding, and chromatin organization. Therefore, it is important to investigate the statistics and dynamics of confined polymers and predict their time and space evolution. Acquiring information on...
The emergence and relative stability of complex spherical packing phases in binary blends composed of A1B1 and A2B2 diblock copolymers are systematically studied using the polymeric self-consistent field theory. Phase diagrams are constructed in a large parameter space of the system. The results demonstrated that complex spherical packing phases including the Frank-Kasper A15 and phases, and...
Self-consistent field theory (SCFT) has been remarkably successful in predicting the ordered phases of diblock copolymer melts. However, SCFT fails to predict the correct qualitative behavior along the order-disorder transition. It is well understood that this is because the saddle-point approximation of SCFT neglects fluctuation effects, which are particularly important for disordered...
Recent experiments [Kim et al. Science 356, 520 (2017); PNAS 115, 847 (2018)] observed that the temperature protocol used to heat and cool an asymmetric diblock copolymer from its disordered micelle liquid state to its ordered micelle crystal phase, and back, can influence which ordered phase is found. This suggests some memory of the initial ordered micelle phase is preserved in the...
