Identifying a critical micelle temperature in simulations of disordered asymmetric diblock copolymer melts

Abstract

In melts of highly asymmetric diblock copolymers, copolymers self-assemble into spherical micelles. Indirect evidence has long suggested the existence of two distinct characteristic temperatures in such materials: A critical micelle temperature (CMT) at which a dense fluid of micelles appears over a narrow range of temperatures and an order disorder transition (ODT) temperature at which micelles crystallize. In this article, molecular dynamics simulations are used to definitively confirm the correctness of this picture in melts of high molecular weight polymers, and to show that the CMT occurs very near where self-consistent field theory predicts the ODT to occur.