INTRAPARTICLE DISTRIBUTION-FUNCTIONS FOR A MICELLE FORMED BY A SMALL SYMMETRICAL TRIBLOCK COPOLYMER IN A POOR SOLVENT FOR THE TERMINAL BLOCKS

The micelle formed by small symmetric triblock copolymers with sticky terminal blocks has been simulated on a cubic lattice. The system contains 20 chains, A5B10A5, at a volume fraction of 0.0376. The chains are non-self-interesting. The micelle forms when the pairwise interaction of nonbonded beads in the insoluble blocks is 0.5kT when either a bead from a soluble block or a void (solvent) is a nearest neighbor. The micelle has a rudimentary internal core that is dense-packed beads of A, a very diffuse interface, and a less expanded corona than a diblock copolymer micelle. Both solvent and B beads penetrate further into the core of the micelle of a triblock copolymer than into the core of a micelle of a diblock copolymer.