Mini-workshop On Localized Structures: Interfaces and Spikes

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences

&

Department of Mathematics

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

May 28, 2002 (Tuesday)

9:00am - 12:00noon

Room 503, Mong Man Wai Building, CUHK

Speaker

Affiliation

Title

Professor M. J. Ward

Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia

(To be announced)

Professor Xinfu Chen

Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh

Generation, Propagation and Annilation of Metastable Patterns

Professor Xiaofeng Ren

Department of Mathematics, Utah State University

Block Copolymer Morphology and Variational Calculus

For enquiries, please contact Prof. J. C. Wei by phone at 2609-7967 or email: wei@math.cuhk.edu.hk.

Programme

9:00 - 9:15am Registration

9:15 - 10:00am

Speaker: Professor M. J. Ward

Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia

Title: (To be announced)

10:00 - 10:15am Tea Break

10:15 - 11:00am

Speaker: Professor Xinfu Chen

Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh

Title: Generation, Propagation and Annilation of Metastable Patterns

11:00 - 11:15am Tea Break

11:15 - 12:00noon

Speaker: Professor Xiaofeng Ren

Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Utah State University

Title: Block Copolymer Morphology and Variational Calculus

Abstract: Block copolymers belong to a class of soft materials that are characterized by fluid-like disorder on the molecular scale and a high degree of morphological order at longer length scales. They are produced by joining two (in the case of diblock copolymers) or three (in the case of triblock copolymers) chemically distinct homopolymer blocks, each a linear series of identical monomers, to form long chain molecules.

In this talk I will review a density functional theory. In this theory the free energy is expressed as a functional of the order parameters of monomer densities. It is a variational problem with a nonlocal term in the integrand. I will take a diblock copolymer as an example to explain the existence of the AB lamellar phase, an ordered morphological pattern, as a free energy local minimizer, using the methods of G-convergence and energy comparison. I will also explain the structural phase transition from this ordered lamellar phase to the disordered homogeneous phase when temperature rises. Then I will discuss the lamellar phase of a triblock copolymer and some non-lamellar phases.

Speaker	Affiliation	Title
Professor M. J. Ward	Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia	(To be announced)
Professor Xinfu Chen	Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh	Generation, Propagation and Annilation of Metastable Patterns
Professor Xiaofeng Ren	Department of Mathematics, Utah State University	Block Copolymer Morphology and Variational Calculus

9:00 - 9:15am	Registration

9:15 - 10:00am
Speaker:	Professor M. J. Ward
Affiliation:	Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia
Title:	(To be announced)

10:00 - 10:15am	Tea Break

10:15 - 11:00am
Speaker:	Professor Xinfu Chen
Affiliation:	Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh
Title:	Generation, Propagation and Annilation of Metastable Patterns

11:00 - 11:15am	Tea Break

11:15 - 12:00noon
Speaker:	Professor Xiaofeng Ren
Affiliation:	Department of Mathematics, Utah State University
Title:	Block Copolymer Morphology and Variational Calculus
Abstract:	Block copolymers belong to a class of soft materials that are characterized by fluid-like disorder on the molecular scale and a high degree of morphological order at longer length scales. They are produced by joining two (in the case of diblock copolymers) or three (in the case of triblock copolymers) chemically distinct homopolymer blocks, each a linear series of identical monomers, to form long chain molecules. In this talk I will review a density functional theory. In this theory the free energy is expressed as a functional of the order parameters of monomer densities. It is a variational problem with a nonlocal term in the integrand. I will take a diblock copolymer as an example to explain the existence of the AB lamellar phase, an ordered morphological pattern, as a free energy local minimizer, using the methods of G-convergence and energy comparison. I will also explain the structural phase transition from this ordered lamellar phase to the disordered homogeneous phase when temperature rises. Then I will discuss the lamellar phase of a triblock copolymer and some non-lamellar phases.