Morphologies Of Block Copolymer Blend With Homopolymer Grafted Particles

Nanoparticles and block copolymer has received much attention both in experiment and theory,as block copolymer has a great potential in the areas of photonic crystals,lithographic templates for nanowires,drug delivery.We investigate the self-assembly of block copolymer blend with homopolymer grafted nanoparticles by using self-consistent field theroy.We obtain a variety of ordered patterns by changing the fraction of A block,the brush density,the number and arrangement of nanoparticles.Firstly,we investigate the phase behavior of the AB diblock copolymer blend with homopolymer grafted nanoparticles.The numerical simulation shows that the AB diblock phase is obviously effected by homopolymer brush and nanoparticles.As the volume fractions of A block increase,cylinder,cylinder+lamellae,and concentric annulus structures are formed,these novel structures like annulus structure cannot be observed in the bulk or other nanoparticles blended system.We find that the morphologies of block copolymer are sensitive about the number and arrangementof nanoparticles,ordered constructure can be obtained by range the nanoparticles orderly.Secondly,we investigate the phase behavior of the ABC triblock copolymer blend with homopolymer grafted nanoparticles.The results show that morphology of ABC triblock copolymer is depend on ratio of components and the wetting strength of homopolymer brush.Moreover,the morphologies of triblock copolymer can be regulated by the number and arrangement of nanoparticles.In conclusion,block copolymer can form a variety of complex morphologies by blend with homoplymer grafted nanoparticles.our results provide a technique guide for creating ordered patterns at nanoscale.