Effects of concentration and chain length of the sequence copolymer on interfacial properties of homopolymers/sequence copolymers ternary blends: A DPD simulation study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 7; p. e0270094
• Main Authors: Liu, Dongmei, Bo, Huifeng, Jin, Yongchao, Li, Deyang, Zhang, Zhanxin, Gong, Kai, Lin, Ye, Li, Sijia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 26.07.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Chains; Compatibility; Compatibilizers; Composite materials; Computer and Information Sciences; Copolymers; Dynamics of a particle; Friction; Interfaces; Interfacial properties; Materials research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Micelles; Mixtures; Monte Carlo simulation; Particle dynamics; Physical Sciences; Research and analysis methods; Surface tension; Tension; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270094

The effect of the concentration and chain length of the copolymer AB with sequence length [tau] = 8 on the interfacial properties of the ternary mixtures A.sub.10 /AB/B.sub.10 are investigated by the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. It is found that: i) As the copolymer concentration varies from 0.05 to 0.15, increasing the copolymer enrichment at the center of the interface enlarges the interface width [omega] and reduces the interfacial tension. However, as the concentration of the sequence copolymers further increases to 0.2, because the interface has formed micelles and the micellization could lower the efficiency of copolymers as a compatibilizer, the interfacial tension exhibits a slightly increase; ii) elevating the copolymer chain length, the copolymer volumes vary from a cylinder shape to a pancake shape. The blends of the copolymer with chain length N.sub.cp = 24 exhibit a wider interfacial width w and a lower interfacial tension [gamma], which indicates that the sequenced copolymer N.sub.cp = 24 exhibits a better performance as the compatibilizers. This study illustrates the correlations between the reduction in interfacial tension produced by the sequence copolymers and their molecular parameters, which guide a rational design of an efficient compatibilizer.