Surface-induced phase transitions of wormlike chains in slit confinement

On the basis of a self-consistent field theory treatment of semi-flexible polymer chains, we analyze the effects of the flexibility on the structure of polymers sterically confined between two parallel, structureless walls separated by a distance. The model is built from a wormlike chain formalism w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soft matter 2016-01, Vol.12 (11), p.2948-2959
Main Authors: Ye, Shiwei, Zhang, Pingwen, Chen, Jeff Z. Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chains (polymeric)
Condensing
Density
Flexibility
Formalism
Mathematical models
Phase transformations
Walls
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Summary:On the basis of a self-consistent field theory treatment of semi-flexible polymer chains, we analyze the effects of the flexibility on the structure of polymers sterically confined between two parallel, structureless walls separated by a distance. The model is built from a wormlike chain formalism which crosses over from the rod limit to the flexible limit, and the Onsager-type interaction which describes the orientation-dependent excluded-volume interaction. Three surface states were obtained from the numerical solution to the theory: uniaxial, biaxial, and condensed. As the overall density increases in such a lyotropic system, first order phase transitions between uniaxial and biaxial states, biaxial and condensed states can occur. As the overall density increases, a semiflexible polymer fluid confined in a slit displays three orientational states, stage by stage. The main-axis orientational distributions of different states near the surface have different characteristics.
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/c5sm02835c