Forced-assembly of triblock copolymers at the transitioning interfaces from liquid-air to solid-air

The nature of an interface specifies properties such as adhesion, interfacial fracture toughness, friction/wear, adsorption, wettability, compatibility with adjacent phases and the like. Based on a mean field approach in polymer mixtures, entangled Individual polymer coils coerce the characteristic segmental interactions while the connectivity of the segments along the chain increases the scales in space, time, and temperature domains as compared to those of liquids. In this point, the interfacial phenomena of phase coexistence and segregation in polymer films can be described in terms of the orientation of the polymer chains to the interface, morphology and the chain diffusion dynamics, dominated by the chain length and the process kinetics.

With the designed triblock copolymers (ABA) having two dissimilar blocks at the center and the ends, dynamic co-solidification with a polymeric substrate is investigated in this study occurring at the interfaces changing from liquid-air to solid-air. Solidified from a planar melt/dissolved phase, parallel or perpendicular folding of polymer chains on a substrate, degree of embodiment into a substrate and the contributing efficacy of exposed segments to the whole surface property are elucidated as compared to those expected in homopolymer or diblock copolymers. In addition to the mean field theory, force balance among two dissimilar blocks and the substrate are focused upon to explain a dynamic polymer physics characteristic at the interface.