Eur. Phys. J. E (2016) 39: 91
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2016-16091-8

Colloquium

Perspective: parameters in a self-consistent field theory of multicomponent wormlike-copolymer melts

¹ School of Chemistry and Environment, Center of Soft Matter Physics and its Applications, Beihang University, 100191, Beijing, China
² Department of Physics, Wenzhou University, 325035, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

^* e-mail: jeffchen@uwaterloo.ca

Received: 17 March 2016
Accepted: 13 September 2016
Published online: 4 October 2016

Abstract

We review a formalism that can be used to calculate the microphase-separated crystallographic structures of multi-component wormlike polymer melts. The approach is based on a self-consistent field theory of wormlike polymers where the persistence length of each component is an important parameter. We emphasize on an analysis of the number of independent parameters required to specify a problem in general, for a system that includes Flory-Huggins and Maier-Saupe energies. Examples of recent applications are also briefly demonstrated: AB homopolymer interface, AB diblock copolymers, and rod-coil copolymers.