Controllable stacked disk morphologies of charged diblock copolymers

Monte Carlo simulations are used to demonstrate the controlled stacking of charged block copolymer disk morphologies that can be obtained under certain thermodynamic conditions. We examine a partially charged block copolymer where 75% of the blocks are neutral and 25% of the blocks are charged. The presence of strong electrostatic interactions promotes charge agglomeration thereby changing morphologies in these systems. This study relates different thermodynamic quantities for which disk-like stackings can be obtained. The long-range order can be sustained even if hydrophobicity is increased albeit with lower dimensional structures. Our simulation results agree very well with recent experiments and are consistent with theoretical observations of counterion adsorption on flexible polyelectrolytes.