Self-assembled helical structures of ABCD star tetrablock copolymer within cylindrical confinement

Physical confinement of block copolymers plays an important role in generating a rich variety of novel ordered phases not seen in bulk systems. These novel ordered microstructures, arising mainly out of structural frustration and confinement-induced entropy loss, provide ideal templates to self-assemble nanoparticles. In order to generate novel multicomponent helical structures, we investigate the four-armed ABCD star tetrablock copolymers for their equilibrium states under cylindrical nanopore confinement with the help of self-consistent field theory. The ABCD star tetrablock copolymer exhibits rich self-assembly behaviour with myriads of three-dimensional ordered phases ranging from one-component, two-components and three-components helices to honeycomb-like structures depending upon the individual block fractions and the size of cylindrical nanopore. Such chiral structural motifs generated from achiral polymeric molecules are fascinating due to superior performance in sophisticated optical functions. The comprehensive understanding of the self-assembly behaviour enables one to design novel nanostructured materials with desired material properties.