Predicting Copolymer/Nanoparticle Composite Morphology
Currently, Dr.
Balazs is leading a research team in a study focusing
on the interactions between mesophase-forming copolymers
and nanoscopic particles. The mixtures can lead to highly
organized hybrid materials, which can be used in the fabrication
of nanodevices. The morphology of such composites depends
not only on the characteristics of the copolymers, but
also on the features of the nanoparticles. To explore
this vast parameter space and predict the equilibrium
mesophases of the hybrids, researchers have developed
a mean field theory for mixtures of soft, flexible chains
and hard spheres. Applied to diblock-nanoparticle mixtures,
the theory predicts ordered phases where particles and
diblocks self-assemble into spatially periodic structures.
This method is also being extended to other copolymer-particle
mixtures in order to design novel composite architectures.
Density profiles for the particles and chains