Previous abstract
Next abstract
Session E30 - Computer Simulations & Theory II.
MIXED session, Tuesday morning, March 19
Room 265, America's Center
In the Leibler description of copolymer systems containing only two kinds of monomers, the state of the system is described by one order parameter\psi(r), representing the deviation of the local composition from the space averaged value. The Landau free enery is expanded up to fourth order in powers of \psi(r) and subsequently minimized with respect to the symmetry, the amplitude and the period of the microstructure. However, if the system contains some kind of polydispersity, so that the copolymers are no longer identical, the description in terms of only one order parameter is an oversimplification. Recently, Erukhimovich and Dobrynin refined the theory by introducing separate order parameters for each molecule type present. We will present the application of this approach to a particular correlated random copolymer system and discuss its consequences. In particular, the nature of the micro phase separated states and the order of the order-disorder transition will be considered.