Theories for Polymer Melts Consisting of Rod-Coil Polymers

Block copolymers consisting of rigid and flexible blocks are commonly known as rod-coil block copolymers. Self-assembly of rod-coil block copolymers forms a distinct class of problems in polymer physics. This chapter reviews three approaches include ideal rod-coil polymer model, lattice model, and semiflexible-semiflexible polymer model as well as the basic parameters used in a typical theoretical model to represent the properties of a rod-coil system. It discusses the model for a diblock-copolymer melt consisting of semiflexible-semiflexible polymer chains in the self-consistent field theory (SCFT) framework. Despite recent efforts in calculating the phase diagram for the problem of rod-coil polymer melts, the calculation of the entire phase diagram is far from complete for a couple of reasons. First, a typical formalism involves spatial inhomogeneity coupled with orientational ordering of polymer segments. Second, there are a number of essential physical parameters in the system, yielding a multidimensional parameter space.