Eur. Phys. J. E (2018) 41: 88
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2018-11698-3

Regular Article

The Daoud and Cotton blob model and the interaction of star-shaped polymers

¹ Institut Charles Sadron CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, Rue du Loess, 67034, Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
² Department of Physics, Sejong University, 05006, Seoul, South Korea

^* e-mail: albert.johner@ics-cnrs.unistra.fr
^** e-mail: lee@sejong.ac.kr

Received: 19 April 2018
Accepted: 2 July 2018
Published online: 25 July 2018

Abstract

Since it was first proposed in 1982, the Daoud and Cotton (DC) model for star-shaped polymers was intensively used also for self-assembled copolymers and small colloids grafted with long polymers. We try to clarify the position of the DC model and focus on the star partition function which plays a central role in self-assembly and gives access to the star-star interaction. While the predicted star-star interaction agrees with scattering data by Likos et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4450 (1998)), an extensive simulation by Hsu et al. (Macromolecules, 37, 4658 (2004)) does not recover the prediction for the partition function. We try to reconcile this seemingly conflicting results. We discuss star-star interactions, star free energy in -solvents, mixing of A/B branches in copolymer stars, within or beyond the Daoud and Cotton blob model.