Phase behaviour of two-component bottle-brush polymers with flexible backbones under poor solvent conditions

The phase behaviour of two-component bottle-brush polymers with fully flexible backbones under poor solvent conditions is studied via molecular-dynamics simulations, using a coarse-grained bead-spring model and side chains of up to N = 40 effective monomers. We consider a symmetric model where side chains of type A and B are grafted alternately onto a flexible backbone. The aim of this study is to explore the phase behaviour of two-component bottle-brushes depending on parameters, such as as the grafting density σ, the backbone length N_b, the side-chain length N, and the temperature T. Based on a cluster analysis, we identify for our range of parameters the regimes of fully phase separated systems, i.e., A-type side chains form one cluster and B-type chains another, while the interface that separates these two clusters contains the backbone monomers. We find that pearl-necklace or Janus-like structures, which normally occur for bottle-brush polymers with rigid backbones under poor solvent conditions, are fully attributed to the backbone rigidity, and, therefore, such structures are unlikely in the case of bottle brushes with fully flexible backbones. Also, a comparative discussion with earlier work on the phase behaviour of single-component bottle-brush polymers with flexible backbones is performed. (paper)