Effect on interfacial tension of multiblock polymers at immiscible homopolymer interfaces

Block copolymers have been investigated as compatibilizers in immiscible homopolymer blends for over 40 years. A critical aspect of their performance is their ability to emulsify thermodynamically dissimilar polymers, as manifested by a reduction in the interfacial tension between the two homopolymers. While significant theoretical and experimental effort has been devoted to understanding how diblock copolymers reduce interfacial tension, considerably less effort has been devoted to studying the reduction in interfacial tension induced by multiblock copolymers when they adsorb at interfaces. To address this question, we will present interfacial tension data obtained via molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained polymer model, focusing on the extent to which this effect is controlled by the architecture of the multiblock polymers.