Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 111, Issue 26, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.267801
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Funding
- DFG [Mu1674/9-2, Mu1674/14-1]
- Volkswagen foundation
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The free-energy landscape of self-assembling block copolymer systems is characterized by a multitude of metastable minima. Using particle-based simulations of a soft, coarse-grained model, we explore opportunities to reproducibly direct the spontaneous ordering of these self-assembling systems into a metastable complex network morphology-specifically, Schoen's I-WP periodic minimal surface-starting from a highly unstable state that is generated by a rapid expansion. This process-directed self-assembly provides an alternative to fine-tuning molecular architecture or blending for fabricating complex network structures. Comparing our particle-based simulation results to recently developed free-energy techniques, we critically assess their ability to predict spontaneous formation and highlight the importance of non-equilibrium molecular conformations in the starting state and the local conservation of density.
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