Molecular simulation of the adsorption of rod/coil blends on nano-patterned surfaces

The adsorption of rod/coil blends onto patterned surfaces with periodic stripes of width w was simulated using Monte-Carlo methods. The rods and the coils were taken to be fused monomers of diameter σ, interacting with the stripes by a square-well potential of depth ε and width σ. When the interaction was through excluded-volume interactions only, we observed segregation of the components in the adsorbed layer. The adsorbed rods are strongly aligned along the stripe for w = σ, but lose their orientational order for larger w. When a repulsive interaction between the rods and the coils was introduced, an increase in the surface coverage of the rods with better recognition of the stripes was observed.