Smectic Rod-Coil Melts Confined between Flat Plates: Monolayer-Bilayer and Parallel-Perpendicular Transitions

Abstract

We study theoretically the equilibrium properties of a rod-coil diblock copolymer melt confined between two flat plates. We assume that the system forms lamellae in the bulk. The plates may have a preference for either the rods or coils. We investigate whether the preferred alignment of the lamellae is parallel or perpendicular to the plates and how the lamellar spacing changes compared to the bulk lamellar spacing. We find that this system is much more constrained than the analogous coil-coil system and for certain values of the rod-coil interfacial tensions that perpendicular lamellae exist for quite thick films. For dissimilar bounding plates we find the antisymmetric parallel morphology may exist. Show more