Phase Behavior of Linear-Star Topology-Transformable Block Copolymers

Linear-star topology-transformable copolymers are a new class of block copolymers employing freely sliding rotaxane structures instead of covalent bonds to connect different blocks, which can dynamically change their topology according to the environment. We introduce a sliding degree of freedom to describe the adaptive self-sorting of molecular topology and carry out a theoretical investigation using the Gaussian chain model and random phase …