Polymeric Bicontinuous Microemulsions

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
High molecular weight block copolymers can be viewed as macromolecular surfactants when blended with thermodynamically incompatible homopolymers. This Letter describes the formation of polymeric bicontinuous microemulsions in mixtures containing a model diblock copolymer and two homopolymers. Although we attribute development of this equilibrium morphology to the effects of fluctuations, mean-field theory provides a quantitative strategy for preparing the bicontinuous state at blend compositions near an isotropic Lifshitz point.