Langmuir, Vol.15, No.9, 3232-3241, 1999
Formation of surface micelles from adsorbed asymmetric block copolymers: A Monte Carlo study
The properties of surface micelles formed from flexible short block copolymers of composition A(f)B(1-f) f = 1/4 and chain lengths of N = 8 and N = 16 effective monomers are obtained from Monte Carlo simulation of a coarse-grained bead spring model. We consider the case where the surface has a short-range attraction to the A monomers but is repulsive for the B monomers. Depending on the surface coverage and the strength E-AA of the attractive energy between the A monomers, the adsorbed polymers may form "mushrooms", or a polymer brush, or surface micelles. We show that a rather well-defined critical micelle concentration occurs, similar to that for micelle formation in bulk solutions, and we study the size distribution of the micelles as well as their internal structure. Large micelles exhibit a very dense solid core and are essentially immobile. Equilibration then is still possible via the exchange of single mobile chains between micelles.
Keywords:CONCENTRATED POLYMER-SOLUTIONS;BEAD-SPRING MODEL;DIBLOCKCOPOLYMER;SIMULATION;SEPARATION;DYNAMICS;EQUATION;PRESSURE;DILUTE;STATE