Dodecagonal quasicrystal in a polymeric alloy II: specific heat

Abstract

In a previous paper, we reported the formation of a dodecagonal quasicrystal (DDQC) in a quasi-two-dimensional lattice Monte Carlo simulation of a star-shaped polymer. In this paper, we show a series of Archimedean and quasicrystalline phases (4.82) -> (32.4.3.4) -> DDQC -> (4.6.12) with increase of one component of ABC star polymers. The phase behaviour can be regarded as a transition between square tiling and triangle tiling via square-triangle tiling. We compare the specific heat for the phases and find that the DDQC sample possesses higher specific heat at high temperatures, which may be attributed to phason dynamics.

Keywords

phase transformations, polymers, quasicrystals, self-assembly, specific heat