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Register a new userShape characteristics of the aggregates formed by amphiphilic stars in water: dissipative particle dynamics study
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Added by
Dr. Jaroslav Ilnytskyi
Publication date
2017
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We study the effect of the molecular architecture of amphiphilic star polymers on the shape of aggregates they form in water. Both solute and solvent are considered at a coarse-grained level by means of dissipative particle dynamics simulations. Four different molecular architectures are considered: the miktoarm star, two different diblock stars and a group of linear diblock copolymers, all of the same composition and molecular weight. Aggregation is started from a closely packed bunch of $N_{text a}$ molecules immersed into water. In most cases, a single aggregate is observed as a result of equilibration, and its shape characteristics are studied depending on the aggregation number $N_{text a}$. Four types of aggregate shape are observed: spherical, rod-like and disc-like micelle and a spherical vesicle. We estimate phase boundaries between these shapes depending on the molecular architecture. Sharp transitions between aspherical micelle and a vesicle are found in most cases. The pretransition region shows large amplitude oscillations of the shape characteristics with the oscillation frequency strongly dependent on the molecular architecture.
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