The Mesodyn simulation of pluronic water mixtures using the ‘equivalent chain’ method

Abstract

The new dynamic density functional method—mesoscopic dynamics (Mesodyn)—was used to simulate microphage separation kinetics of aqueous pluronic solutions. The ‘equivalent chain’ method was used to perform the parameterization of the Gaussian chain. Three kinds of pluronic solutions, i.e. (EO)₆(PO)₃₄(EO)₆ (L62), (EO)₁₃(PO)₃₀(EO)₁₃ (L64) and (EO)₃₇(PO)₅₈(EO)₃₇ (P105), were investigated at different temperatures. The factors influencing the self-assembly morphology of the copolymer solution were discussed. The simulation results show that the less hydrophobic PO component, the less possibility there is of forming a core of the hydrophobic region. The simulation results also indicate that an increase of temperature results in a decrease in the interfacial area and an increase in the periodicity of the pluronic water system. The dynamic evolution process of the system and the factors affecting the process were also investigated and discussed here. The simulation results show that when the temperature increases, the phase separation process becomes slow.