Diblock copolymer micelle structure and dynamics near the order-disorder transition
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Abstract
At high temperatures, the blocks of an AB-diblock copolymer melt mix on a molecular level, to form the homogeneous disordered phase (DIS). As the melt is cooled, the blocks microphase segregate, forming ordered structures, such as BCC-ordered micelles (BCC). We study the order-disorder transition (ODT) in AB-diblock copolymer melts as described by the Landau-Brazovskii model. We start with the simple, direct DIS to BCC transition via nucleation in the mean-field limit, and then modify our approach to include disordered micelles (DM) and physically realistic random compositional fluctuations (noise) with an amplitude that depends on the invariant polymerization index,