Abstract
In equilibrium the interface potential that describes the interaction between two AB interfaces in a binary blend of and homopolymers is attractive at all distances, resulting in coarsening of the blend morphology even in the absence of interface curvature. We demonstrate that the dissipative assembly in response to a time-periodic variation of the blend incompatibility qualitatively alters this behavior; i.e., for suitable parameters the interface potential exhibits a periodic spatial modulation and AB interfaces adopt a well-defined distance. We explore for which oscillation periods and amplitudes an interface repulsion occurs and demonstrate that we can control the preferred interface distance over a wide range by varying the oscillation period. Using particle-based simulations we explicitly demonstrate that this dissipative assembly of a homopolymer blend results in a lamellar structure with multiple planar interfaces in a thin film geometry.
- Received 6 March 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.237801
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