A paper has been accepted and published regarding the effect that nanoparticles have on the morphology of a diblock copolymer system. The paper appears in the journal Advanced Theory and Simulations 2018 September issue and can be found here  . It is the result of a collaboration of Lincoln’s group members Andrei Zvelindovsky, Marco Pinna and Javier Díaz, with University of Barcelona’s Professor Ignacio Pagonabarraga.

In this paper we have tried to assert the morphologies of a system containing block copolymers and colloids. In particular, we found that colloids can induce several different phase transitions depending on the number of particles present in the system and the chemical compatibility within the diblock copolymer matrix. For that reason, we provide different phase diagrams in which we vary these parameters. We identify different regimes which are both modifications of existing phases and new configurations which have not been reported before.

These studies can be compared with experiments and simulations performed with different methods, thus providing a validation to the model we have used.