Issue 9, 2023

The role of surface topography in the self-assembly of polymeric surfactants

Abstract

We propose a classical density functional theory model to study the self-assembly of polymeric surfactants on curved surfaces. We use this model to investigate the thermodynamics of phase separation of a binary mixture of size asymmetric miscible surfactants on cylindrical and spherical surfaces, and observe that phase separation driven by size alone is thermodynamically unfavorable on both cylindrical and spherical surfaces. We use the theory, supplemented by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations, to predict pattern formation on a non-uniform surface with regions of positive and negative curvature. Our results suggest potential ways to couple surface topography and polymeric surfactants to design surfaces coated with non-uniform patterns.

Graphical abstract: The role of surface topography in the self-assembly of polymeric surfactants

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 11月 2022
Accepted
19 1月 2023
First published
20 1月 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2023,19, 1709-1719

The role of surface topography in the self-assembly of polymeric surfactants

M. Liu, J. D. Farrell, X. Zhang, J. Dobnikar and S. Angioletti-Uberti, Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 1709 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM01540D

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