Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 20: Complex Fluids and Soft Matter (joint session DY/CPP)
CPP 20.1: Talk
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 09:30–09:45, ZEU/0160
Process-Directed Self-Assembly of Copolymer Blends: Micro- and Macrophase Separation — •Jiayu Xie and Marcus Müller — Institute for Theoretical Physics, Georg August University Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
The equilibrium phase behavior of binary diblock copolymer blends involves a complex interplay between microphase and macrophase separation. We investigate blends of linear diblock copolymers, A1B1 (cylinder-forming) and A2B2 (cylinder- or lamella-forming), using a combination of self-consistent field theory (SCFT) and single-chain-in-mean-field (SCMF) simulations. When the chain-length asymmetry between the A1B1 and A2B2 copolymers becomes large, the equilibrium phase diagram exhibits a wide macrophase-separation channel. Strikingly, our simulations reveal a strong pathway dependence within this region: rapid quenching yields a spatially homogeneous structure with narrow cylinder-size distributions and strong hexagonal order, whereas gradual annealing promotes local demixing, resulting in bimodal domain sizes and weaker order. We demonstrate that this process-dependent nonequilibrium behavior can be explained by the distinct evolutions of the system state and free-energy landscape of the blends under quenching or annealing. These findings highlight how different processing conditions can direct nanostructure formation in block copolymer blends, and establish a mechanistic link between processing pathway and the final morphology, thus offering insights into rational design of targeted nanostructured materials.
Keywords: Block copolymer; Polymer blends; Self-assembly; Phase separation; Nonequilibrium