PEO—PPO—PEO三嵌段共聚物自组装行为的耗散粒子动力学模拟

采用耗散粒子动力学方法（DPD）,模拟了聚氧乙烯-聚氧丙烯-聚氧乙烯（PEO—PPO—PEO）三嵌段共聚物在乙醇溶液中的自组装行为,考察了该共聚物的体积分数和聚氧乙烯（PEO）嵌段链长对介观形貌的影响。当F88（PEO104-PPO39-PEO104）体积分数为20％时,胶柬由初始的均衡分散态逐渐聚合,最终形成PPO为核、PEO为壳的平衡态柱状团聚体。改变共聚物的体积分数和PEO链的长度,会形成不同的介观结构,如：球状、柱状、立体网络、层状和穿孔状结构等。结果表明,DPD方法是研究三嵌段共聚物自组装行为和介观结构形成机理的有效工具,对合成具有特定结构性能的材料有一定的指导意义。     

Formation of Vesicles from Amphiphilic Random Copolymers in Solution: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation Study

Five coarse-grained models were built for amphiphilic random copolymers. The self-assembly of amphiphilic random copolymers in selective solvent was investigated via dissipative particle dynamics simulations. The simulation results showed that the content of hydrophilic particles and the repulsive parameter between solvent and copolymer particles were two key factors of the vesicle formation. We report herein on how to control the self-assembled morphology evolution. The two mechanisms of vesicle formation from amphiphilic random copolymers are found through investigating the dynamic processes of vesicle formation, which is in accordance with the experiment and simulation results of amphiphilic block copolymer reported in the literature.      

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation of the Sensitive Anchoring Behavior of Smectic Liquid Crystals at Aqueous Phase

Rational design of thermotropic liquid crystal (LC)-based sensors utilizing different mesophases holds great promise to open up novel detection modalities for various chemical and biological applications. In this context, we present a dissipative particle dynamics study to explore the unique anchoring behavior of nematic and smectic LCs at amphiphile-laden aqueous-LC interface. By increasing the surface coverage of amphiphiles, two distinct anchoring sequences, a continuous planar-tilted-homeotropic transition and a discontinuous planar-to-homeotropic transition, can be observed for the nematic and smectic LCs, respectively. More importantly, the latter occurs at a much lower surface coverage of amphiphiles, demonstrating an outstanding sensitivity for the smectic-based sensors. The dynamics of reorientation further reveals that the formation of homeotropic smectic anchoring is mainly governed by the synchronous growth of smectic layers through the LCs, which is significantly different from the mechanism of interface-to-bulk ordering propagation in nematic anchoring. Furthermore, the smectic LCs have also been proven to possess a potential selectivity in response to a subtle change in the chain rigidity of amphiphiles. These simulation findings are promising and would be valuable for the development of novel smectic-based sensors.     

Fascinating Morphological Behavior of A2-star-(B-alt-C) Molecules in the Melts and Solutions

We employ dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) to examine the self-assembling behavior of A₂-star-(B-alt-C) molecules in the melt and solution states. When these molecules are in the melts, we successfully observe various types of hierarchical structure-within-structures, such as A-formed spheres in the matrix formed by B and C alternating layers, hexagonally packed A-formed cylinders in the matrix with B and C segregated layers, B and C alternating layers-within-lamellae, coaxial B and C alternating domains within hexagonally packed BC-formed cylinders, and concentric BC-alternating domains within BC-formed spheres, by increasing the A composition. These hierarchical structures by varying the composition are reported theoretically for the first time in the copolymer systems consisting of the alternating blocks, and in good agreement with the most recent experimental work by Matsushita and co-workers (Macromolecules 2007 , 40, 4023). Generally speaking, the small-length-scale B and C segregated domains are in parallel to the large-length-scale structures for the melt case. While when a selective solvent is added, we find that varying the solvent selectivity and the amount of solvent can induce the molecules to form quite different morphological patterns, such as the so-called segmented worm like micelles.     

Microphase Separation of Phenylene Oligomers with Polymeric Side Chains: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study

The microphase‐separated morphologies of p‐phenylene oligomers with POx, PCL, PS, and PEO side chains are studied using DPD simulations. It is shown that the microphase‐separated morphologies depend significantly on the degree of chemical incompatibility between the components as indicated by the Flory‐Huggins interaction parameters. The good agreement of the microphase separated morphologies as simulated by DPD with the experimentally determined thin film morphologies suggests that DPD can produce convincing morphological information at the nanoscale. The results show that grafting of polymeric side chains can be an important tool to control the morphology of polymers with a rigid backbone.

     

Multicompartment Micellar Solutions in Shear: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study

Summary: Dissipative particle dynamics simulations were performed to study the effect of shear on the rheological behavior of multicompartment micellar solutions, demonstrating that both shear thickening and thinning can occur, and the macroscopic behavior was elucidated at a molecular level. In addition, a novel shear‐induced morphology of “sphere‐on‐rod” was observed. This work provides useful information towards a complete understanding of the properties and morphologies of multicompartment micelles that is useful for future rational synthesis of novel micelles.

Shear‐induced morphological transitions and rheological behavior in multicompartment micellar solutions formed from star triblock copolymers.     

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation of Onion Phase in Star-block Copolymer

A dissipative particle dynamics simulation technique was used to investigate the effect of molecular architecture of star-block copolymer on the patterned structure in a nanodroplet. With increasing the ratio of solvophilic to block length to solvophobic block length(R_H/T), solvophobic sphere, ordered hexagonal phase, onion phase, perforated onion phase and flocculent phase are formed, respectively. Since onion phase has potential application in controlled drug release, it has received wide attention experimentally and theoretically. Our simulation indicates onion phase forms at a certain R_H/T(close to but less than 1). A star-block copolymer molecule has two conformations in onion phase: either fully located in a shell or shared by two neighboring shells. Central structure affects onion's final shape. The molecular number of the copolymer in each shell is a quadratic function of the shell's radius. The arm number of star-block copolymer has little influence on onion's structure, but slightly affects the solvent content. Additionally, we studied the influence of arm length on onion's structure.     

梳状-线性共聚物自组装的耗散粒子动力学模拟

梳状-线性共聚物在选择性溶剂中可以自组装形成两种不同类型的聚集体, 其中第I类的自组装发生在亲、疏溶剂链之间, 而第II类发生在线性链和梳状亚结构之间. 本工作利用耗散粒子动力学方法, 分别研究了梳状-线性共聚物在侧链和主链选择性溶剂中形成的这两类聚集体, 探讨了侧链长度和侧链数量等对聚集体类型及形貌的影响. 研究表明, 第II类聚集体在侧链长度较短且侧链数量较多时容易形成. 将模拟结果与文献报道的实验结果相比较, 发现两者能较好地吻合. 此外, 本研究获得了一些在实验中较难得到的信息, 有助于进一步理解梳状-线性共聚物的自组装行为.     

长棒状T形三组分双亲分子相行为的耗散粒子动力学模拟

采用耗散粒子动力学方法建立了以侧链长度和温度为变量的相图,计算了相关结构参数及每个液晶相对应侧链的有效体积分数,重现了实验上观察到的五边形、六边形柱状相及刚棒在层内位置的有序堆垛层状结构.研究发现,长棒状T形三组分双亲分子相图中的相序列和相结构符合相关报道,并且侧链有效体积分数f L与实验值一致.表明粗粒化模型反映了真实T形分子的主要特性,如分子的拓扑结构、排除体积效应及分相趋势、刚棒液晶基元的长径比和侧链的空间效应.证实了侧链尺寸对主/侧链非线性连接体系的自组装结构及各组成单元的位置分布的重要作用.     

Effects of Electrostatic Interactions on the Translocation of Polymers Through a Narrow Pore Under Different Solvent Conditions: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation Study

Polymer translocation through a narrow pore is investigated using a particle‐based dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method. A rigid core is included in each particle to avoid particle interpenetration problems based on the original DPD method. Electrostatic interactions of charged particles are simply represented via screened Coulombic interactions. The average translocation time τ versus polymer length N satisfies the scaling law τ ∼ N^β. The scaling exponent β depends on solvent quality. The results demonstrate that solvent quality exerts a considerable influence on the dynamics of translocation of polymers. The findings may help facilitate understanding of the dynamic behaviors of various polymer and DNA molecules during translocation processes.

     

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations of Polymer Brushes: Comparison with Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Summary: The structure of polymer brushes is investigated by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations that include explicit solvent particles. With an appropriate choice of the DPD interaction parameters , we obtain good agreement with previous molecular dynamics (MD) results where the good solvent behavior has been modeled by an effective Lennard–Jones potential. The present results confirm that DPD simulation techniques can be applied for large length scale simulations of polymer brushes. A relation between the different length scales and is established.

Polymer brush at a solid–liquid interface.     

多分散性对嵌段共聚物微观相行为影响的耗散粒子动力学模拟研究进展

嵌段共聚物通过微观相分离形成的各种有序结构在纳米印刷、药物输送、太阳能电池模板制备等领域有着广泛的应用.如何实现这些有序结构的有效调控是大家普遍关心的问题.近期的实验及理论研究表明嵌段长度的多分散性对嵌段共聚物的微观相行为有着不可忽视的影响.本文综述了近年来在AB型两嵌段及ABA型三嵌段共聚物的实验及理论研究中的一些主要进展,重点介绍了基于耗散粒子动力学的模拟研究进展.并对多分散性可能带来潜在重要影响的嵌段共聚物相关体系的未来发展方向进行了展望.     

Cooperative Self‐Assembly of Nanoparticle Mixtures in Lamellar Diblock Copolymers: A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study

Summary: Dissipative particle dynamics simulations are performed on the distribution of binary nanoparticle mixtures in lamellar diblock copolymers. The results show that the self‐assembly of nanoparticle mixtures in polymer matrix is a cooperative assembly that is affected by various factors, providing molecular‐level information for the rational design of new polymer nanocomposites with tailored properties.

The simulated polymer nanocomposite structure (the polymer matrix was omitted for clarity; P, gray; Q, black).     

嵌段共聚物组成对薄膜形貌影响的多体耗散粒子动力学研究

利用多体耗散粒子动力学(Multibody Dissipative Particle Dynamics, Multibody DPD)方法研究了在溶剂蒸发条件下, 嵌段共聚物在表面自组装形成薄膜的过程, 分别考虑了两嵌段共聚物和三嵌段共聚物及不同组成对薄膜形貌的影响. 模拟得到了无序状薄膜和层状薄膜, 并计算了这些薄膜的序参量和薄膜厚度随时间的演化. 结果表明, 嵌段共聚物的组成对薄膜厚度几乎没有影响, 当某种组分的链段很短时, 只能形成序参量较小的无序薄膜, 相反, 则可以得到序参量较大的层状薄膜.     

Self-Assembly Behaviors of Heterogemini Surfactant in Aqueous Solution Investigated by Dissipative Particle Dynamics

As a preliminary study, self-assembly behaviors of heterogemini surfactant in aqueous solution are explored tentatively by means of dissipative particle dynamics simulation. Five kinds of heterogemini molecules are involved, and a variety of novel morphologies have been obtained. Results based on detailed comparisons among themselves and with traditional symmetric gemini surfactant show the proportion of hydrophilic to hydrophobic chain lengths in one monomer is the most important, more difference between proportions in the two monomers can induce more diverse self-assembly morphologies. The second important is the hydrophilic chain length, in which a small change can lead to obvious difference in self-assembly behaviors. While the length of hydrophobic chain has a less important influence, only the concentration for self-assembly morphologies appearing can be affected by its change. The microscopic morphology of heterogemini surfactant in its self-assembly structure can be embodied through its radius of gyration. Our simulation results can undoubtedly provide a theoretical guide to further research towards self-assembly behaviors of heterogemini surfactants and practical applications of these matters.     

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations on the Self-Assembly of New Segmented Random-Block Copolymers in Selective Solvents

Dissipative particle dynamics simulation was applied to investigate the self-assembly of new segmented random-block copolymers (A-co-B)-b-B in selective solvents. The coarse-grained models of random-block copolymers were built. The effects of the composition of the copolymer, the interaction parameters, the volume fractions, as well as the ratio of hydrophilic particles to hydrophobic particles in the random segment, on the morphology of the aggregations were systematically investigated. The results showed that new segmented random-block copolymers (A-co-B)-b-B could self-assemble into rodlike micelle, spherical micelle and two-compartment micelle. Oval-shaped micelle and spherical micelle could be formed at different volume fractions. The simulation results provide an important reference to the design and synthesis of specific micelles.     

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of the Formation of Multicompartment Micelles from ABC Star Triblock Copolymers in Water

Summary: Dissipative particle dynamics simulation was performed to study the formation of multicompartment micelles from ABC star triblock copolymers in water. The study revealed some new morphologies that had not been observed before and also provided a direct visualization of the evolution of wormlike multicompartment micelles that follows the fusion process. Thus, this work provides molecular understanding of multicompartment micelles which will be useful for the future rational synthesis of novel micelles.

Multicompartment micelles formed from ABC star triblock copolymers in water by DPD simulations.     

Understanding Multicompartment Micelles Using Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation

Multicompartment micelles are a new class of nanomaterials that may find wide applications in the fields of drug delivery, nanotechnology and catalysis. Due to their structural complexity, as well as the wide parameter space to explore, experimental investigations are a difficult task, to which molecular simulation may contribute greatly. In this paper, the application of the dissipative particle dynamics simulation technique to the understanding of multicompartment micelles is introduced, illustrating that DPD is a powerful tool for identifying new morphologies by varying block length, block ratio and solvent quality in a systematic way. The formation process of multicompartment micelles, as well as shear effects and the self-assembly of nanoparticle mixtures in multicompartment micelles, can also be studied well by DPD simulation. The present work shows that DPD, as well as other simulation techniques and theories, can complement experiments greatly, not only in exploring properties in a wider parameter space, but also by giving a preview of phenomena prior to experiments. DPD, as a mesoscopic dynamic simulation technique, is particularly useful for understanding the dynamic processes of multicompartment micelles at a microscopic level.