Predicting the morphology of nanostructured composites

The mixing of microphase-separating diblock copolymers and nanoparticles can lead to the self-assembly of organic/inorganic hybrid materials that are spatially organized on the nanometer length scale. There is a considerable challenge in modeling such systems since the appropriate theories must capture not only the formation of the diblock mesophases but also the copolymer-particle and particle-particle interactions, which can affect the ultimate structure of the material. Recently, a theoretical approach has been developed to describe the behavior of diblock/particle mixtures and predict the equilibrium morphology of the resulting composites. The approach, which combines self-consistent field and density functional theories, can facilitate the design of hybrid materials with the desired morphology for novel opto-electronic devices, separation membranes and catalysts. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.