Effects Of Solvent Selection On Crystallization-driven Self-assembly Growth Of Diblock Copolymers In Solution

Self-assembly of diblock copolymers in solvent selective to the specific block can give rise to a range of core-shell structures.Cylindrical micelles are among the most attractive morphologies with diverse potential uses astemplates for biomedical applieations such as drug delivery,additives for enhancing the toughness of epoxy resins,and in the field of nanotechnology and neurodegenerative diseases.In this work,we performed dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of lattice polymers to study the effect of solvent selection on the crystallization driven fibrilcrystal growthof diblockcopolymers under one circumstances of solutions:massive crystals with depleting mode of decaying polymer concentrations.We confirmed that the quality of the solvent has a mjor effect on the system.When the solvent is good,the non-crystallized blocks are over crowding around the coil making it harder for the new crystalline blocks to penetrate and thus,slowing down the crystallization.When the solvent is poor,the non-crystallized blocks are openingaway from the coil making it easier for the new crystalline blocks to penetrate and thus,making the crystallization faster,Moreover,when the solvent in the system is good and the interaction between the hydrophobic blocks and solvent is lowered down,it is easier for the non-crystallized blocks to penetrate through the crowded shielding around the coil due to the compatibility between both blocks in this case.