Homopolymer solubilization limits in copolymer micelles: A Monte Carlo study

When small concentrations of A-b-B diblock copolymer are mixed with A homop olymer or selective solvent, they often form spherical micelles with cores comprised of the B blocks. Simple mean field calculations predict that rela tively low molecular weight B homopolymer can be solubilized within the cor es, up to a threshold concentration which depends on molecular weight. Thes e predictions are consistent with electron microscopy studies. In this pape r, we present a Monte Carlo study of these systems. The results are in qual itative agreement with the phase behavior predicted by mean field theory an d observed in the experiments.