PET/PEN Blends of Industrial Interest as Barrier Materials. Part I. Many-Scale Molecular Modeling of PET/PEN Blends

Mesoscale molecular simulations, based on parameters obtained through atomistic molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo calculations, have been used for modeling and predicting the behavior of PET/PEN blends. Different simulations have been performed in order to study and compare pure homopolymer blends with blends characterized by the presence of PET/PEN block copolymers acting as compatibilizer. A many-scale molecular modeling strategy was devised to evaluate PET/PEN blend characteristics, simulate phase segregation in pure PET/PEN blends, and demonstrate the improvement of miscibility due to the presence of the transesterification reaction products. The behavior of distribution densities and …