An apparatus for turbidimetric measurements of demixing temperatures under shear flow is presented, and the results of experiments with trans-decahydronaphthalene/polystyrene (TD/PS) solutions, investigating molecular weights ranging from 100 kg/mol to 1770 kg/mol, are compared with viscometric data. It is found that the sign and magnitude of shear effects depend on molecular weight (Mw), polymer concentration (c2), and shear rate (). For the first time, it was possible to study a solution which exhibits shear dissolution at low shear rates but shear demixing at high shear rates.

Phase diagrams were calculated for flowing solutions of polystyrene in trans-decahydronaphthalene assuming that the energy (Es) stored in the sheared state has to be added to the Gibbs energy of mixing; Es is computed from viscometric data (flow curves). The resulting phase diagrams exhibit two maxima in most of the cases instead of only one for the stagnant solutions. A comparison with experimental data (Part 1) shows that the calculated demixing behaviour agrees well for moderate shear rates and concentrations of the polymer. Deviations in the semidilute region, particularly for higher values, are a consequence of the fact that so far no reliable theoretical relation has been given for th…