Effect of Architecture on the Phase Behavior of AB-Type Block Copolymer Melts

Abstract

Equilibrium phase diagrams are calculated for a selection of two-component block copolymer architectures using self-consistent field theory (SCFT). The topology of the phase diagrams is relatively unaffected by differences in architecture, but the phase boundaries shift significantly in composition. The shifts are consistent with the decomposition of architectures into constituent units as proposed by Gido and co-workers, but there are significant quantitative deviations from this principle in the intermediate-segregation regime. Although the complex phase windows continue to be dominated by the gyroid (G) phase, the regions of the newly discovered Fddd (O70) phase become appreciable for certain architectures and the perforated-lamellar (PL) phase becomes stable when the complex phase windows shift toward high compositional asymmetry.