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Title: Unraveling the Agglomeration Mechanism in Charged Block Copolymer and Surfactant Complexes

Journal Article · · Macromolecules
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Neutron Data Analysis and Visualization
  2. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and Computer Science and Mathematics Division

We report a molecular dynamics simulation investigation of self-assembly and complex formation of charged–neutral double hydrophilic and hydrophobic–hydrophilic block copolymers (BCP) with oppositely charged surfactants. The structure of the surfactant micelles and the BCP aggregation on the micelle surface is systematically studied for five different BCP volume fractions that also mimics a reduction of the surfactant concentration. The local electrostatic interactions between the oppositely charged species encourage the formation of core–shell structures between the surfactant micelles where the surfactants form the cores and the charged blocks of the BCP form the corona. The emergent morphologies of these aggregates are contingent upon the nature of the BCP neutral blocks. The hydrophilic neutral blocks agglomerate with the micelles as hairy colloidal structures while the hydrophobic neutrals agglomerate in lamellar structures with the surfactant micelles. The distribution of counterion charges along the simulation box shows a close-to-normal density distribution for the hydrophilic neutral blocks and a binodal distribution for hydrophobic neutral blocks. No specific surfactant concentration dependent scaling relation is observed as opposed to the simpler case of homo-polyelectrolytes.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Spallation Neutron Source (SNS); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Joint Institute for Computational Sciences (JICS); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1346670
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1484360
Journal Information:
Macromolecules, Vol. 50, Issue 3; ISSN 0024-9297
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 26 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Janus or homogeneous nanoparticle mediated self-assembly of polymer electrolyte fuel cell membranes journal January 2018
Computer study of the solubilization of polymer chains in polyelectrolyte complex cores of polymeric nanoparticles in aqueous media journal January 2018
Intermolecular Interactions in Polyelectrolyte and Surfactant Complexes in Solution journal December 2018
Microspheres with Tunable Porosity Based on Reactive Block Copolymer: Preparation and Vapor‐Healing Behavior journal March 2019
Amending the Structure of Renewable Carbon from Biorefinery Waste-Streams for Energy Storage Applications journal May 2018
The biphasic effect of ABA triblock copolymers on the self-assembly of surfactants: insight from dissipative particle dynamics journal January 2019

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