Effect of flory-huggins interaction parameter on the shape of block copolymer particles

Abstract

Research of anisotropic particles have been carried out for their potential applications. When the block copolymer is self-assembled in emulsion droplet, which is confined geometry, anisotropic particles can be generated when the interfacial energy between polymer and surrounding is controlled. It was reported that size of particles, degree of polymerization and Flory-Huggins interaction parameter affect the formation of anisotropic block copolymer particles. As the size of particles or degree of polymerization is increased, block copolymer particles with higher aspect ratio are obtained. However, the effect of Flory-Huggins interaction parameter on the shape of anisotropic particles has yet studied. Herein, we introduce three block copolymer with different Flory-Huggins interaction parameter, and made a ellipsoidal and convex-lens like particles. In addition, we observe that the tendency of AR as increasing Flory-Huggins interaction parameter. Moreover, it was observed that it is possible to generated anisotropic particles (AR>3) as fabricating block copolymer with much higher Flory-Huggins parameter.