0000000000268121
AUTHOR
Ellen Reister
Spinodal decomposition in a binary polymer mixture: Dynamic self-consistent-field theory and Monte Carlo simulations
We investigate how the dynamics of a single chain influences the kinetics of early stage phase separation in a symmetric binary polymer mixture. We consider quenches from the disordered phase into the region of spinodal instability. On a mean field level we approach this problem with two methods: a dynamical extension of the self consistent field theory for Gaussian chains, with the density variables evolving in time, and the method of the external potential dynamics where the effective external fields are propagated in time. Different wave vector dependencies of the kinetic coefficient are taken into account. These early stages of spinodal decomposition are also studied through Monte Carlo…
Spinodal Decomposition in Binary Polymer Blends: Monte Carlo Simulations and Dynamic Mean Field Theory
Using large scale computer simulations we have investigated the interplay between single chain dynamics and the kinetics of phase separation in a symmetric binary polymer blend. In the framework of a coarse grained lattice model — the bond fluctuation model on a three dimensional lattice — we monitor the growth of concentration fluctuations after a quench from the one phase region into the miscibility gap. Chains of 64 effective segments are simulated in a cell of linear dimension L = 160, i.e., each simulation box contains 256 000 particles. The growth rate of composition fluctuations is averaged over 64 realizations of the temperature quench.