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Microphase Separation of Semiflexible Ring Diblock Copolymers

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Abstract

Aiming at the difficult problem of solving the conformation statistics of complex polymers, this study presents a novel and concise conformation statistics theoretical approach based on Monte Carlo and Neural Network method. This method offers a new research idea for investigating the conformation statistics of complex polymers, characterized by its simplicity and practicality. It can be applied to more complex topological structure, more higher degree of freedom polymer systems with higher dimensions, theory research on dynamic self-consistent field theory and polymer field theory, as well as the analysis of scattering experimental data. The conformation statistics of complex polymers determine the structure and response properties of the system. Using the new method proposed in this study, taking the semiflexible ring diblock copolymer as an example, Monte Carlo simulation is used to sample this ring conformation to construct the dataset of polymer. The structure factor describing conformation statistics are expressed as continuous functions of structure parameters by neural network supervised learning. This is the innovation of this work. As an application, the structure factors represented by neural networks were introduced into the random phase approximation theory to study the microphase separation of semiflexible ring diblock copolymers. The influence of the ring’s topological properties on the phase transition behavior was pointed out.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22173004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical Science and Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Dan-Yan Qin, Sheng-Da Zhao, Zhi-Xin Liu, Jing Zhang & Xing-Hua Zhang

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  1. Dan-Yan Qin
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  2. Sheng-Da Zhao
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  3. Zhi-Xin Liu
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  4. Jing Zhang
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  5. Xing-Hua Zhang
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Correspondence to Xing-Hua Zhang.

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Qin, DY., Zhao, SD., Liu, ZX. et al. Microphase Separation of Semiflexible Ring Diblock Copolymers. Chin J Polym Sci 42, 267–276 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-023-3024-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-023-3024-1

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