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Conformations of Amphiphilic Diblock Star Copolymers
Author(s) -
Ganazzoli Fabio,
Kuznetsov Yuri A.,
Timoshenko Edward G.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3919(20010401)10:4<325::aid-mats325>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - copolymer , globular cluster , observable , metastability , monte carlo method , amphiphile , monomer , star (game theory) , star polymer , gaussian , statistical physics , chemical physics , materials science , stars , chemistry , physics , polymer , computational chemistry , mathematics , organic chemistry , statistics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , astrophysics , composite material
We study conformations assumed by single diblock star copolymers in a poor solvent by means of the Gaussian variational theory and Monte Carlo simulation in continuous space. Cases of stars with internal and external hydrophobic blocks are analysed. While in the former case the collapsed state has an obvious micellar shape, the latter case exhibits two nontrivial conformational structures. Apart from the equilibrium state of a globular hydrophobic core with hydrophilic daisy loops, one also finds here a metastable state of outstretched hydrophilic blocks with hydrophobic subglobules at their ends. Such a state appears to be rather long‐lived during the kinetics of collapse of a swollen star. The plots of monomer densities and other observables computed by means of both techniques are found to be in good agreement with each other.