Theory of Microphase Segregation in the Melts of Copolymers with Dendritically Branched, Bottlebrush, or Cycled Blocks.

Theory of microphase segregation in the melt of diblock copolymers comprising two strongly incompatible blocks of similar or different topologies is developed. The spectrum of considered architectures include copolymers with arbitrary combinations of bottlebrush-like, dendritic, cycled blocks, and so on. Our theory provides quantitative predictions of how the morphology of the microphase segregated structures can be controlled not only by the volume fractions of the incompatible blocks, but also by their architecture. These predictions open perspectives for developing new materials, for example, photonic crystals, with independently adjustable volume fractions and morphology of the domains.