Monte Carlo Study of Heteroarm Star Copolymers in Good and Selective Solvents

Abstract

Lattice Monte Carlo simulations of conformations of hereroarm star copolymers AnBn in selective solvents were performed using a special variant of the Siepman and Frenkel algorithm. The effects of solvent quality, the number and lengths of blocks on the collapse of the insoluble block A, segregation of the two types of blocks and the behavior of the soluble blocks B were studied mainly for “hairy” stars containing high numbers of long arms. The simulation shows that insoluble blocks collapse in strongly selective solvents and the gravity centers of soluble and insoluble blocks separate which suggests the possibility of the formation of non‐spherical structures.

Scaling of Star Polymers with 1−80 Arms

“…They increase with f much slower than predicted. But this finding is not entirely new, it had been observed previously in Monte Carlo simulations [20,40]. Our data are compatible with these, but more precise and extending to larger values of f .…”

Universal Size and Shape Ratios for Arms in Star‐Branched Polymers: Theory and Mesoscopic Simulations

“…It is also interesting to note that the Daoud–Cotton ansatz provides the result that is very close to our simulations at f > 10, following the discussion in ref. that this ansatz is valid for the case of a rather large number of branches f .…”

A New Simulation Algorithm with Revised “Association Criteria” for Studying the Association of Heteroarm Star Copolymers

“…Recently we studied experimentally15,28 the solution behavior of polystyrene‐poly(2‐vinylpyridine) heteroarm samples in acid aqueous media and in aqueous mixtures with polar organic solvents and the behavior of polystyrene‐poly(ethylene oxide) heteroarms in aqueous media 29. Dilute solution of heteroarm star copolymer were also studied by Monte Carlo simulation 30…”