Molecular simulations of confined crystallization in the microdomains of diblock copolymers

Crystallization confined in the microdomains of diblock copolymers represents the strategy of “structure-in-structure” self-assembly in the hierarchical fabrication of polymeric nano-materials. This review is a survey on the molecular-level understanding of crystallization confined in lamellar, cylindrical and spherical microdomains of diblock copolymers. Separate situations such as hard confinement, soft confinement and double crystallization are discussed, and the simulation results are compared with the relative experiments. The confinement effects on guiding the preference of crystal orientations were interpreted. Molecular simulations were proved to be a useful tool in understanding such a delicate fabrication of nano-materials.