Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 141, 251-254 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2007-00048-4

Structural properties of a fluid of polymers confined in a porous matrix of star polymers

¹ Institut für Theoretische Physik and CMS, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8–10, 1040 Wien, Austria
² Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Abstract

We have studied the structural properties of a fluid of linear polymer chains under the external field of a disordered porous matrix, represented by a frozen liquid configuration of star polymer particles. To this end, and using a coarse-grained description of both fluid and matrix, we have applied the replica Ornstein-Zernike formalism to this particular case where soft and ultra-soft interparticle potentials have come into play. Our systematic investigations point out how the matrix influences the structural properties of the confined polymer fluid.