Investigation of copolymer–micellar system EO37PO56EO37 by low-frequency internal friction

Revealing sol–gel type main effects by exploring a molecular cluster behavior in model in-plane amphiphilic aggregations

“…This is, therefore, still a sol phase of classical type since the polar-polar residues' interaction does not contribute at all (or, contributes only negligibly, in practice) to the overall amphiphilic microstructure formation [30]. While based on many-micelles effects, which prevail in a more concentrated solution, a network of micelles is plausibly formed, thus finally constituting a type of gel [28]. When assuming that the strong hydrophobic interactions are the only bond creators, one can call it a strong gel; if not, one can relax this name, speaking rather of a weak gel, in which HP interactions are also of importance [12].…”

“…In Ref. [28], the firstorder character of the phase transition is attributed to crystallizing micelles. This information will be very important in interpretation of our simulation results described in following sections.…”

“…In this way the gelling system may become inhomogeneous due to some frozen-in microcrystallites [28] and their amorphous intermingled (vitreous) phases, perturbing structurally the otherwise homogeneous and amorphous solution matrix. These inclusions make the (gelling) systems nonequilibrated over longer time spans, which does contribute virtually to a certain aging effect on the overall material formation [36,15].…”

“…Strong gels are formed and the chains spread over all the available space. Aggregates are characterized by high crystallinity [28]. Thus, the alternate configuration promotes creation of strong-gel type, highly ordered, formations.…”

“…Because, in our study, the first-order character of phase transition is attributed to crystallizing (fringed) micelles [28], an exploration towards crystallinity of the MBM has been performed. Some experimental evidence exists that (bio)polymers, prone to partial crystallization structure at some temperature due to hydrophobic interaction, contribute to the gelation mechanism as characteristic micelle-packing is assured by hydrophobic interactions, as well as partial crystallization of (bio)polymer blocks [28].…”