Isotropic Lifshitz behavior in block copolymer-homopolymer blends

A series of mixtures composed of a symmetric A-B diblock copolymer and a symmetric blend of A and B homopolymers was investigated by small-angle neutron scattering. Mean-field theory predicts that a line of lamellar-disorder transitions with wave-vector instability q* > 0 will meet a line of critical points with q* = 0 in the three-component mixture at an isotropic Lifshitz point. Mean-field Lifshitz behavior (gamma = 1 and nu = 1/4) was observed in the disordered state at the anticipated composition to within 1 K of the phase transition.