ORDERING STRUCTURES IN A CHEMICALLY REACTING BINARY MIXTURE UNDER DRIVEN PARTICLES

Abstract

We investigate the pattern formation of a binary polymer mixture in the presence of chemical reaction A ⇌ B and with the inclusion of mobile particles under a modulated pinning potential. The presence of particles with a preferential attraction for one component of the mixture breaks the isotropy of the bulk phase-separating process and controls the orientational ordering of structures. On the other hand, the chemical reaction can change the relative volume of A and B components, leading to the formation of a wide variety of morphologies. We find that due to the competition among the chemical reaction, phase separation and externally-driven effect, some unusual ordering structures can be realized. The results may provide some important insights into designing novel ordering morphologies such as microporous structures and quantum dots.