Modeling microstructure formation in block copolymer membranes using dynamical self-consistent field theory
ORAL
Abstract
Block copolymers have attracted recent interest as candidate materials for ultrafiltration membranes, due to their ability to self-assemble an isoporous selective layer at the membrane surface. However, the dependence of surface layer and substructure morphologies on the many processing variables for block copolymer membranes is not well understood. Here, we use dynamical self-consistent field theory to simulate the microstructure evolution of block copolymer membranes during the phase inversion process. In particular, we find that the block selectivities of the solvent and nonsolvent dramatically affect the resulting microstructure. We discuss the implications of the observed trends on the choices of solvent and nonsolvent in the processing context.
*This work was supported as part of the Center for Materials for Water and Energy Systems (M-WET), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award #DE-SC0019272. Use was made of the computational facilities administered by the Center for Scientific Computing at the CNSI and MRL (an NSF MRSEC; DMR-1720256) and purchased through NSF CNS-1725797.
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Presenters
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Douglas Grzetic
- University of California, Santa Barbara