On the structural properties from ring diblock copolymers in bulk and in solution

Abstract

In order to deepen the fundamental knowledge between the structure of ring diblock copolymers and their physico-chemical properties in bulk and in solution, this paper is devoted to a theoretical approach of the structural properties of such polymeric system. This study based on the equation of Benoît, which is a generalization of the relation of Zimm written in its matrix form. We mainly discuss the case of binary mixtures consisting of a diblock copolymer A-B in solution and in the bulk state. To this end, we have investigated the variations of the partial structure factor Saa(Q) as a function of the normalized wave-vector for various parameters. In particular, we have emphasized on the position of the scattering peak Qmax, its amplitude Saa(Qmax) and zero angle signal Saa(Q=0). The main conclusion is that, the circularity of cyclic chains affects drastically the structural properties of the system under consideration.