Polymer solutions: from hard monomers to soft polymers

TL;DR

This paper presents a coarse-graining method for polymer solutions that derives effective interactions between polymer centers of mass, extending to complex copolymer structures and analyzing solvent quality effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coarse-graining strategy for dilute and semi-dilute polymer solutions, including block copolymers, with a focus on microphase separation and solvent conditions.

Findings

Effective pair potentials between polymer centers of mass derived.

Method successfully applied to symmetric diblock copolymers.

Analysis of solvent quality crossover using scaling techniques.

Abstract

A coarse-graining strategy for dilute and semi-dilute solutions of interacting polymers, and of colloid polymer mixtures is briefly described. Monomer degrees of freedom are traced out to derive an effective, state dependent pair potential between the polymer centres of mass. The cross-over between good and poor solvent conditions is discussed within a scaling analysis. The method is extended to block copolymers represented as "necklaces" of soft "blobs", and its success is illustrated here in the case of a symmetric diblock copolymer which exhibits microphase separation.