Diblock Copolymers with Similar Glass Transition Temperatures in Both Blocks for Comparing Shear Orientation Processes with DPD Computer Simulations

The purpose of this study is the development of phase-separating diblock copolymer model systems suitable for the comparison between the orientation process under shear and computer simulations of the same process. To do so, the polymer systems have to fulfill certain requirements like similar dynamics of both polymer blocks, which are associated with comparable glass transition temperatures. The development of suitable diblock copolymer systems such as poly(ethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) or the tuning of already established polymer systems like polystyrene-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) via copolymerization with 4-vinylpyridine is essential. Anionic polymerization is used for the sample synthesis to achieve this goal with the lowest possible polydispersity. Soft, coarse-grained models are used to study the block dynamics in computer simulations. Within the dissipative particle dynamics methods the remaining differences in the block mobility are addressed. The experimentally determined zero-shear viscosity eta(0) is used to match the simulation results to the synthesized polymer melts.