The self-assembly behavior of polymer/nanorods hybrid system under oscillation field

Abstract

The self-assembly behavior of diblock copolymer/homopolymer/nanorods hybrid system under oscillation field is performed by using Cell Dynamics Scheme (CDS) and Brownian Dynamics (BD). The effects of the amplitude and frequency of the oscillation field on the formation and evolution of the mixture morphology are investigated systematically. It is found that the oscillation field plays an important role in the formation and transformation of the ordered structure. With the frequency increasing, the orientation of the lamellar structure transforms from parallel to the field direction to random angle and then to perpendicular to the field direction. Compared with the pure rod system, the addition of polymers has a combing effect. Under high amplitude and low frequency (<inline-formula><tex-math id="M1">\begin{document}$ {\rm{\omega }}\leqslant 0.01 $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20222207_M1.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20222207_M1.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>) of the oscillation field, the arrangement of nanorods transforms from vertical to horizontal. However, under high amplitude and high frequency (<inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$ \omega > 0.01 $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20222207_M2.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20222207_M2.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>), the nanorods change from vertical/horizontal hybrid arrangement to vertical arrangement. The evolution of domain size and orientation angle of nanorods under oscillation field are further analysed. The results provide a new method and reference for fabricating and regulating the ordered structure of polymer nanocomposites.