Co-assembly of anisotropic colloids and diblock copolymer mixtures

Block copolymers are excellent candidates to template the localisation of colloids, in order to create ordered arrays of nanoparticles, with uses in optical and electrical applications. The co-assembly of block copolymer nanocomposite materials can lead to highly ordered systems in the mesoscale. Computer simulations have been used to address the complex assembly of anisotropic rod-like colloids. The crossover between the block copolymer intrinsic length scales and the shape and orientation of anisotropic nanoparticles leads to a rich variety of phase behaviors, both in terms of polymeric morphologies and colloidal organisation.
Rod-like nanoparticles have been found to form side-to-side configuration in block copolymer ultrathin films. SEM images are compared with a hybrid Cell Dynamic/Brownian Dynamic computational method which is used to characterise the assembly of anisotropic nanoparticles in diblock copolymers.