ИСТИНА

Polymer microgels are solvent-swollen colloidal networks with sizes range from tens of nanometers to the several microns. By physical properties, they can be placed between hard colloidal particles and soft polymer macromolecules due to their ability to change the volume in solutions and to bear a strong deformation upon the adsorbtion at fluid interface [1]. In addition, the monolayers of microgels formed at the liquid interface can vary their internal structure upon the external compression possessing the different patterns and the degree of ordering. However, there is a little knowledge about the behaviour of monolayers formed by amphiphilic microgels, especially the ones obtained from block copolymers (both linear and branched). In the current study, we simulated the monolayers of polymer microgels based on diblock copolymers and adsorbed at the liquid interface using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD). In reality, such particles can be obtained, for instance, by crosslinking the four-arm star polymers of two different types. The results revealed the presence of microphase separation inside the single microgels in the solution, whereas the adsorption to the liquid interface changes the intramolecular morphology. In particular, the fingerprint-like lamellar ordering perpendicular to the interface was observed in case of symmetric composition. Meanwhile, the compression of the monolayers leads to the changes both in the morphology of single particle and in the monolayer at full, namely, the lamella began to order parallel to the compression vector, and the intermolecular domain correlation is achieved at the late stages of compression. Our findings may be useful in obtaining of highly ordered nanodomains upon the further adsorption of the compressed monolayer to the solid surface.