Simulation study on the migration of diblock copolymers in periodically patterned slits

Chao Wang; Yan-Li Zhou; Li-Zhen Sun; Ying-Cai Chen; Meng-Bo Luo

doi:10.1063/1.5093791

Simulation study on the migration of diblock copolymers in periodically patterned slits

J Chem Phys. 2019 Apr 28;150(16):164904. doi: 10.1063/1.5093791.

Authors

Chao Wang¹, Yan-Li Zhou¹, Li-Zhen Sun², Ying-Cai Chen¹, Meng-Bo Luo³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China.
² Department of Applied Physics, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China.
³ Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.

PMID: 31042899
DOI: 10.1063/1.5093791

Abstract

The forced migration of diblock copolymers (A_NAB_NB) in periodically patterned slits was investigated by using Langevin dynamics simulation. The lower surface of the slit consists of stripe α and stripe β distributed in alternating sequence, while the upper one is formed only by stripe β. The interaction between block A and stripe α is strongly attractive, while all other interactions are purely repulsive. Simulation results show that the migration of the diblock copolymer is remarkably dependent on the driving force and there is a transition region at moderate driving force. The transition driving force f_t, where the transition region occurs, decreases monotonously with increasing length of block B (N_B) but is independent of the polymer length and the periodic length of the slit, which is interpreted from the free energy landscape of diblock copolymer migration. The results also show that periodic slits could be used to separate diblock polymers with different N_B by tuning the external driving force.