We propose a continuum model for phase separating binary mixtures containing an amphiphilic block copolymer that serves as a surfactant. The model is an extension of a recent density functional theory for block copolymer melts, and the model takes the intramolecular structure of the block copolymer molecule (surfactant molecule) in an averaged sense. We show results of a computer simulation on this model, and discuss the important contributions from the intramolecular structure of the surfactant to the phase separation dynamics, which have usually been neglected in the recent simulations on the phase separation of surfactant solutions that use continuum descriptions.

• Received 26 April 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.50.2856