SELF-CONSISTENT FIELD-THEORY OF MICELLE FORMATION BY BLOCK COPOLYMERS

A self-consistent field theory was developed to account for the micellization of block copolymers in selective solvents. The mean-field expression used successfully by Edwards in treating the polymer excluded-volume problem was modified to enable it to be applied to chains in bad solvents without the generation of unrealistically high segment densities. Full consideration was given to the issue of standard states so that a meaningful comparison could be made between theoretical and experimental results. The theory was able to account in a consistent and satisfactory manner for the thermodynamics of micellization of two polystyrene-block-polyisoprene copolymers in n-hexadecane which is a selectively bad solvent for polystyrene.