Scaling Law for the Liquid to Soft Solid Transition Kinetics in a Block Copolymer Melt

The formation of an ordered crystal (solid) from a disordered liquid has been studied extensively. Quantitative relationships between the rate of growth of the solid phase and thermodynamic factors such as quench depth and dynamical factors such as molecular mobility have been established. In contrast, little is known about the rate of formation of soft solids formed by amphiphillic molecules such as block copolymers, surfacants, and phospholipids. The softness is due to many factors such as the large length scale of the periodicity (typically 10 sup 2 X), thermal fluctuations, and liquid crystalline symmetry that often arises in these systems. These factors will also affect the kinettics of the disorder-to-order transition. In this paper, we present experimental data for the kinetics of order formation in a block copolymer melt.