Abstract
Lattice Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the stabilization of different ordered bicontinuous phases in A−B diblock copolymer systems. The stabilization approach involves attempting to reduce the packing frustration inside the nodes of the bicontinuous phases by the addition of an A-component “additive”. Two different strategies are considered which entail the addition of (1) explicit selective-solvent particles and (2) homopolymer of a length equal to 80% that of the diblock copolymer chains. Approximate phase boundaries were found via free-energy calculations, and great care was taken to enact the commensurability of system size with the unit-cell dimensions of distinct candidate phases. A very contrasting phase behavior is observed upon increasing the amount of the A-component additive in the two different strategies. With the first strategy (i.e., addition of solvent particles) we observed the progression gyroid → perforated lamella → lamella → reversed gyroid, including a long-lived metastabl...
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