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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 3: Hydrogels and Microgels

CPP 3.2: Talk

Monday, March 27, 2023, 09:45–10:00, ZEU 255

Swelling and nanophase separation of amphiphilic star polymer conetworks — •Reinhard Scholz and Michael Lang — Leibniz Institut für Polymerforschung, Hohe Str. 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany

Polymer conetworks consisting of complementary four functional stars coupled via complementary end groups are simulated within the framework of a lattice-based Monte Carlo algorithm. A classification of different stars reveals that the conetworks are dominated by ideal star configurations surrounded by four different bonding partners. In a good solvent, the simulation reproduces analytical scaling relations for swelling, modulus and residual bond orientation [1]. A selective solvent induces a phase separation between a swollen polymer phase and embedded clusters consisting of insoluble polymer stars. Due to the complementary end groups, all elastically active chains cross the phase boundary, so that residual bond orientations correspond either to swollen conformations, collapsed stars, or bonds across the phase boundary with a particularly large component along the interface normal. Calculated pair distributions and scattering functions reveal that the length scale of phase separation depends only weakly on the concentration over a broad range of concentrations, c^* < c < 6 c^*.

[1] M. Lang, R. Scholz, L. Löser, C. Bunk, N. Fribiczer, S. Seiffert, F. Böhme, and K. Saalwächter, Macromolecules 55, 5997 - 6014 (2022).