Influence of nanoparticles on cylinder-forming linear triblock copolymers

We investigated the influences of nanoparticles on the cylinder-forming triblock copolymers by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. We focused on the various aspect ratio and concentrations of the nanoparticles (NPs) with neutral surfaces, where three cases, the nanosphere, nano-ellipsoid and nanorod, were considered. The results indicated that the NPs tend to aggregate in interfaces between the blocks at low NP concentration, but penetrate the cylinder domains when the NP concentration is increased. The shape of NPs has obvious effect on the deforming of cylinder domains, where the NPs with larger aspect ratio are easier to deform the cylinder domains and in turn, their orientations are strongly affected by the polymer chains. These observations provide a deeper understanding of potential applications for microstructures based on complex block copolymers and nanoparticle mixtures.