How ill-defined constituents produce well-defined nanoparticles: Effect of polymer dispersity on the uniformity of copolymeric micelles

Abstract

We investigate the effect of polymer length dispersity on the properties of self-assembled micelles in solution by self-consistent field calculations. Polydispersity stabilizes micelles by raising the free energy barriers of micelle formation and dissolution. Most importantly, it significantly reduces the size fluctuations of micelles: Block copolymers of moderate polydispersity form more uniform particles than their monodisperse counterparts. We attribute this to the fact that the packing of the solvophobic monomers in the core can be optimized if the constituent polymers have different length.

arXiv comment4 main figures and 4 supplementary figures. Manuscript accepted for publication in Physical Review Materials

References in corpus (4)

• Self-consistent field theories for complex fluids
• Universality of Block Copolymer Melts
• Polydisperse polymer brushes: internal structure, critical behavior, and interaction with flow
• Simulating Copolymeric Nanoparticle Assembly in the Co-solvent Method: How Mixing Rates Control Final Particle Sizes and Morphologies

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Micelle Forming Linear-Dendritic Block Copolymers: A Theoretical Comparison between Random Hyperbranched and Precise Dendrimer Polymer Architectures