MesoDyn modeling study of the phase morphologies of miktoarm poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) copolymers doped with nanoparticles

• Published in: Polymer international Vol. 63; no. 3; pp. 568 - 575
• Main Authors: Mu, Dan, Li, Jian-Quan, Feng, Sheng-Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.03.2014; Wiley; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Blends; Composites; Copolymers; Exact sciences and technology; Forms of application and semi-finished materials; Mathematical models; microscopic phase separation; Morphology; Nanoparticles; PEO-b-PMMA copolymer; phase morphology; Phase separation; Polymer blends; Polymer industry, paints, wood; Polymethyl methacrylates; Technology of polymers; Property composition relationship; PEO-b-PMMA copolymer; microscopic phase separation; Temperature effect; Theoretical study; Ethylene oxide copolymer; Methyl methacrylate copolymer; Modeling; Structure composition relationship; nanoparticles; Cyclic ether copolymer; Morphology; Phase separation; Numerical simulation; Thermodynamic properties; Block copolymer; Interaction parameter; phase morphology
• ISSN: 0959-8103; 1097-0126
• DOI: 10.1002/pi.4564

The iso‐density surface image of Db1‐type miktoarm poly(ethylene oxide)‐b‐poly(methyl methacrylate) (PEO‐b‐PMMA) copolymer induced by 4‐3‐4‐2 nanoparticle arrangement at 400 K. Red represents PEO component; green represents PMMA component. Earlier studies have shown that poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blocks are compatible at 270 and 298 K, and that their Flory–Huggins interaction parameters have the same blending ratio dependence at both temperatures. At a much higher temperature (400 K), the behavior of PEO/PMMA blends is strikingly different as both components become incompatible, while the Flory–Huggins parameters are low. Here we investigate the effect of doping with nanoparticles on the degree of incompatibility of twelve miktoarm PEO‐b‐PMMA copolymers at 400 K. Since PEO tends to be semicrystalline and long chains aggregate easily, PEO‐rich and long‐chain copolymer blends feature the highest degree of incompatibility for all nanoparticle arrangements and present cubic phase morphologies. In addition, the largest nanoparticles can reinforce the microscopic phase separation of all PEO‐b‐PMMA copolymers. This shows that the main factor affecting the phase morphology is the size of the nanoparticles. Also, only the asymmetric Da3‐type PEO‐rich copolymers show a hexagonal cylindrical phase morphology, which illustrates the effect induced by the nanoparticles on the microscopic phase separation changes of the PEO‐b‐PMMA copolymers. These induced effects are also related to the composition and molecular architecture of the copolymers. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry