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Surface enrichment structures in a binary polymer system with different stiffnesses confined in slits

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Abstract

Binary polymer systems show advantage in many applications. Herein, we study the conformational properties of a binary polymer system consisted of flexible and stiff polymers confined in slits using molecular dynamics simulation. The flexible and stiff polymers have the same chain length and concentration. Two surface enrichment structures, surface enrichment structure of stiff polymers and surface enrichment structure of flexible polymers, are observed dependent on the surface property and polymer concentration. In repulsive slits at high polymer concentration, surface enrichment structure of stiff polymers is observed as the unique structure. For attractive slits of the same attraction strength to both polymers, surface enrichment structure of stiff polymers even appears at low polymer concentration. Surface enrichment structure of flexible polymers can be observed when the surface attraction to the flexible polymers is much stronger than that to the stiff polymers. Our simulation results indicate that the structure of the binary polymer system can be controlled by varying the surface properties.

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Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 12174338 (to W.-T. Zhu).

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  1. Institute of Optoelectronic Technology, Department of Photoelectric Engineering, Lishui University, Lishui, 323000, China

    Wei-Ting Zhu & Wei-Ping Cao

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  1. Wei-Ting Zhu
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  2. Wei-Ping Cao
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Correspondence to Wei-Ping Cao.

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Zhu, WT., Cao, WP. Surface enrichment structures in a binary polymer system with different stiffnesses confined in slits. Colloid Polym Sci 301, 31–39 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-022-05041-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-022-05041-6

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