8th Liquid Matter Conference September 6-10, 2011 Wien, Austria ...

Fri 911:10-14:00P4.25Phase behavior and aggregation patterns in solutions oftelechelic star polymersChristian Koch, 1 Christos Likos, 1 Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos, 2 and FedericaLo Verso 31 University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090, Vienna, Austria2 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton, New Jersey,Ud States of Am3 Komet331, University of Mainz, Mainz, GermanyTelechelics, i.e. , polymeric molecules with reactive terminal groups that allow for intra-molecularas well as inter-molecular bonds, are versatile building blocks for the synthesis of macromoleculesin advanced technology industries [1]. Also, they form a fundamental model to investigate interandintra-molecular aggregation processes that are of special interest when investigating specificmacromolecular conformations and structures in biological materials, such as proteins and enzymes[2, 3], as well as in several medical applications [4]. We employ a variety of grand canonicalMonte Carlo simulation techniques [5] to investigate the phase behavior of solutions of moderatefunctionality telechelic star block copolymers [6] for different arm numbers and functional configurations(i.e. , fraction of attractive end-blocks). We determine and classify macroscopicallyphase-separating systems, along with their respective critical points, and we present phase diagramsbased on histogram reweighting calculations [5, 7]. At low fractions of attractive blocks, thesystems switch over to a microphase-separation scenario, upon which multiply connected micellesare formed in the concentrated solution. We determine the respective critical micelle concentrationsof the micellizing systems, and we investigate their clustering and aggregation patterns bydetermination of their morphological characteristics. Finally, we present results on the influence ofmolecular properties, such as bending rigidity and elasticity of the star arms on radial distributionfunctions, critical behavior and on aggregation patterns.25