Self-assembly of ABA triblock copolymers under soft confinement

•The self-assembly of ABA triblock copolymers under soft confinement was studied.•The effects of control parameters on the morphological transformation were examined.•Monte Carlo method was used in this study.

Using Monte Carlo method, the self-assembly of ABA triblock copolymers under soft confinement is investigated in this study. The soft confinement is achieved by a poor solvent environment for the polymer, which makes the polymer aggregate into a droplet. Various effects, including the block length ratio, the solvent quality for the blocks B, and the incompatibility between blocks A and B, on the micellar structures induced by soft confinement are examined. By increasing the solvent quality of B blocks, the micellar structure transforms from stacked lamella to bud-like structure, and then to onion-like structure for A5B8A5 triblock copolymers, while the inner micellar structure changes from spherical phase to various cylindrical phase, such as inner single helix, double helixes, stacked rings and cage-like structures, for A7B4A7 triblock copolymers. Moreover, the formation pathways of some typical aggregates are examined to illustrate their growth mechanisms.

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