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Self‐Consistent Field Theory within Hildebrand Approximation: Microphase Separation in Gradient Copolymers
Author(s) -
Kriksin Yury,
Erukhimovich Igor,
ten Brinke Gerrit
Publication year - 2016
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/mats.201600018
Subject(s) - copolymer , component (thermodynamics) , phase diagram , phase (matter) , monomer , field (mathematics) , polymer chemistry , materials science , limiting , polymer , thermodynamics , mathematics , physics , composite material , pure mathematics , quantum mechanics , mechanical engineering , engineering
To provide a faster calculation of the block copolymer phase diagrams a simplified version of the self‐consistent field theory (SCFT) is proposed. Multi‐component block copolymers with interactions between repeated units described by the χ ‐parameters satisfying the Hildebrand conditions are studied. This case is shown to correspond to a degeneration within the framework of the general SCFT approach. Remarkably, the degenerated thus multi‐component block copolymers admit two‐component only SCFT description. The procedure presented is applied to gradient copolymers considered as a limiting case of multi‐component copolymers obeying Hildebrand conditions, the lengths of the blocks vanishing and the number of different kinds of repeated monomers tending to infinity. Finally, a melt of symmetric triblock copolymers blurred into a gradient copolymer is studied and corresponding phase diagrams are calculated.