Chain trapping in diblock copolymers near the ordering transition

¹ Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser - P.O. Box 1527, 711 10 Heraklion Crete, Greece
² University of Crete, Physics Department - 711 10 Heraklion Crete, Greece
³ Universität Leipzig, Fakultät für Physik und Geowissenschaften D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
⁴ University of Leeds, Department of Applied Mathematics - Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
⁵ University of Athens, Chemistry Department - 157 01 Zografou Athens, Greece o 7.5cmWe dedicate this paper to the memory o 7.5cmof Gerald Fleischer, with whom we o 7.5cmwrote the paper

Received: 18 February 2000
Accepted: 10 May 2000

Abstract

The mean-square displacement, , of very high molecular weight diblock copolymers in solutions near the disorder-to-order transition is investigated by pulsed-field-gradient NMR. The thermodynamic potential influencing the motion leads to a time-in de pend ent at short times followed by free-diffusional behavior. The plateau is attributed to a trapping of the copolymer chains at the “quasi-interfaces” formed by slow composition fluctuations.