Spatial distribution and nematic ordering of anisotropic nanoparticles in lamellae and hexagonal phases of block copolymers

• Published in: The European physical journal. E, Soft matter and biological physics Vol. 39; no. 12; pp. 126 - 9
• Main Authors: Osipov, Mikhail A., Gorkunov, Maxim V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biological and Medical Physics; Biophysics; Block copolymers; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Complex Systems; Condensed matter physics; Hexagonal phase; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Order parameters; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polymer Sciences; Regular Article; Soft and Granular Matter; Spatial distribution; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Soft Matter: Liquid crystals
• ISSN: 1292-8941; 1292-895X
• DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2016-16126-2

.
Orientational and translational ordering of anisotropic nanoparticles in the lamellae and hexagonal phases of diblock copolymers have been considered theoretically in the case of strong segregation taking into account the anisotropic interaction between the nanoparticles and the monomers in different blocks. It has been shown that anisotropic nanoparticles are orientationally ordered in the boundary region between the blocks and the nematic order parameter possesses opposite signs in different blocks: the nanoparticles align parallel to the boundary in one block and perpendicular to it in the other. In the hexagonal phase, a weak biaxial ordering of nanoparticles is also induced in the boundary region. Explicit analytical results have been obtained for the distribution of nanoparticles in the lamellae phase. The results are compared with the existing experimental data.
Graphical abstract