Multicompartment Micellar Solutions In Shear And Confinement Studied By Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations

Multicompartment micelles are a new family of micelles that may find wide applications in many fields such as drug delivery; however, due to their complexity, the knowledge on them is quite limited to date. In this work, dissipative particle dynamics simulations were performed to investigate (1) the rheological behavior and the effect of shear on the morphology of multicompartment micellar solutions, and (2) the morphology and structure of multicompartment micelles formed in confinement of two kinds of walls (the hydrophilic walls and the ultra-strong repulsive walls), as a function of slit width.The main simulation results include: (1) the rheological behavior of multicompartment micellar solutions which was elucidated at a molecular level for the first time is quite complex and both shear thickening and thinning can occur, and a novel shear-induced morphology, namely "sphere-on-rod", was observed; (2) slit width can influence largely the morphology and structure of multicompartment micellar solutions confined in hydrophilic walls, the commonly observed "confinement-induced alignment" also occurs in multicompartment micellar solutions, and confinement can induce new morphologies, which can also speed up and enhance the formation of large multicompartment micelles; (3) a strong external field produced by the ultra-strong repulsive walls can change the alignment of multicompartment micelles, leading to new well-defined ordered structures.This work provides useful information for understanding the effects of shear and confinement on multicompartment micelles that may contribute to a complete understanding of the properties and morphologies of multicompartment micelles and stimulate its further applications.