Simulation study of poled low-water ionomers with different architectures

The role of the ionomer architecture in the formation of ordered structures in poled membranes is investigated by molecular dynamics computer simulations. It is shown that the length of the sidechain L(s) controls both the areal density of cylindrical aggregates N(c) and the diameter of these cylinders in the poled membrane. The backbone segment length L(b) tunes the average diameter D(s) of cylindrical clusters and the average number of sulfonates N(s) in each cluster. A simple empirical formula is noted for the dependence of the number density of induced rod-like aggregates on the sidechain length L(s) within the parameter range considered in this study.