(552e) Self-Assembly of Bottlebrush Amphiphilic Polymers Near/on Surfaces: Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

A wide range of applications such as electronics, optics, and sensing are engineered at nanometer length scales by the self-assembly of block polymers on surfaces. Linear block polymers have been the focus of a significant number of past experimental, theoretical, and computational studies, investigating self-assembly both in bulk and on/near surfaces. More recently, the self-assembly of non-linear architectures (e.g., bottlebrush, star, comb) have inspired studies near/on surfaces as these polymers offer additional tunable parameters to design ordered structures at surfaces. In this talk, we will present our recent work using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate how branched polymer architecture affects the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymer solutions near/on surfaces. We establish the role of side chain length versus backbone length, side chain grafting density on the backbone of amphiphilic block polymers, and surface attraction strength on the chain conformations and the shapes, sizes and patterns of domains assembled on attractive surfaces.