A Study Of Micellar Architectures In Selective Solvent By Dissipative Particle Dynamics

In this paper, dissipative particle dynamics simulations (DPD) are applied to model micellar architectures formed by comb-like copolymers in selective solvent. In order to study the effects of backbone length, side chain length and the number of grafted point on the micellar architectures, this study has been done in two parts. The first part deals with amphiphilic comb-like copolymers with hydrophobic backbone and hydrophilic grafts whereas the second part deals with amphiphilic comb-like copolymers with hydrophilic backbone and hydrophobic grafts. The simulation results demonstrated a remarkable capability of the studied comb-like copolymers to form micellar architectures such as spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, perforated vesicles, oblate vesicles, elongated vesicles, and novel micelles such as hotdog-like micelles, staircase-like micelles, bone-like micelles, butterfly-like micelles, seahorse- like micelles, K-junction micelles and Y-junction micelles. Nevertheless, the major contribution of this study is its furthering of the understanding in chemical reactions which cannot be obtained in laboratory.