(313d) Understanding Effects of Polymer Architecture on Structure and Thermodynamics in Polymer Solutions Using Theory and Simulations

In this talk I will present our recent work using molecular simulations and Polymer Reference Interaction Site Model (PRISM) theory aimed at understanding effects of non-linear polymer architecture on structure and thermodynamics within polymer solutions. In the first part of my talk focused on homopolymer-solvent mixtures, I will describe the impact of (linear vs. cyclic) homopolymer architecture on the scaling exponent of the chain radius of gyration and the effective polymer-solvent interactions as a function of solvent quality. In the second part of my talk, I will focus on amphiphilic copolymer solutions and show how copolymer architecture (linear, bottle brush, star-like, coil-brush), sequence (diblock, triblock) and composition impact assembled micelle structure (i.e., shape, size, aggregation number) and thermodynamics (i.e., disorder to order transition).