Search results for "SPINODAL DECOMPOSITION"
showing 10 items of 76 documents
Preparation of Poly(l-lactic acid) Scaffolds by Thermally Induced Phase Separation: Role of Thermal History
2018
Abstract Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA) scaffolds for tissue engineering were prepared via thermally induced phase separation of a ternary system PLLA/dioxane/tetrahydrofurane. An extension to solution of a previously developed method for solidification from the melt was adopted, the technique being based on a Continuous Cooling Transformation (CCT) approach, consisting in recording the thermal history of rapidly cooled samples and analysing the resulting morphology. Different foams were produced by changing the thermal history, the dioxane to THF ratio (50/50, 70/30, 90/10 v/v) and the polymer concentration (2, 2.5, 4 ° wt) in the starting ternary solution. Pore size, porosity, melting and crys…
Morphology and thermal behavior of dicyanate ester-polyetherimide semi-IPNS cured at different conditions
2000
A high-temperature thermosetting bisphenol-A dicyanate, BADCy was modified with polyetherimide, PEI, at various compositions. Phase separation and rheokinetics through curing were studied by optical microscopy, dynamic and isothermal differential scanning calorimetry, and rheological measurements. The PEI phase separated at the early stages of curing, well before gelation, and did not affect the polycyclotrimerization kinetics. The phase structure and thermal properties of the final network were investigated as a function of the PEI content and cure temperature. For this purpose, dynamic mechanical analysis, scanning electron microscopy studies, and thermogravimetrical analysis were carried…
Structure of isotactic polypropylene–hydrogenated oligo(cyclopentadiene) (iPP–HOCP) blends Part II. HOCP-rich blends
2000
Abstract Blends of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and hydrogenated oligo(cyclopentadiene) (HOCP) were investigated to gain structural information by means of both SAXS and SANS techniques. The composition range (from 30 to 60% w/w HOCP content) and the temperature range (between 25 and 160°C) were chosen in order to cover the miscibility gap in the phase diagram of the material system. In a previous report, blends lying outside the miscibility gap have been investigated and the corresponding SAXS patterns were interpreted in terms of a pseudo-two phase model. For the SAXS patterns, blends lying inside the miscibility gap are rather hard to be interpreted in terms of such a model. On the othe…
Monte Carlo simulation of polymeric materials: Recent progress
1993
Monte Carlo simulations are presented, dealing with phase diagrams of block copolymer melts and polymer blends, including the unmixing kinetics of the latter systems. The theoretical background is briefly reviewed: Ginzburg-type criteria reveal that in mixtures of long flexible polymers a “crossover” occurs from mean-field behavior (as described by Flory-Huggins theory) to nonclassical Ising-type behavior, and spinodal curves can be unusually sharp. This crossover is demonstrated by large scale simulations of the bond fluctuation model, and it is also shown that for symmetric mixtures the critical temperature scales with chain length as Tc α N. The prefactor in this relation is distinctly s…
Microgel regions in dilute agarose solutions: the notion of non-gelling concentration, and the role of spinodal demixing
1991
Abstract Freely drifting microgel regions are found in aqueous solutions of agarose, a representative biostructural polysaccharide, at concentrations between 0.01% and 0.05% w/v when quenched from 100°C to lower temperature. The size of these domains depends on the quench temperature and agarose concentration. The results agree with recent findings on the role that fluctuations within or close to the instability region of solution have as the initial step towards the self-assembly of supramolecular structures, and throw a new light on the notion of the lowest solute concentration needed for gelation.
Monte Carlo studies of polymer interdiffusion and spinodal decomposition: A review
1991
Abstract Putting a layer of polymer A on top of a layer of polymer B, the broadening of the interfacial profile is observed in the framework of a lattice model (‘bond fluctuation method’). The interdiffusion constant is studied as a function of chain length, vacancy concentration, and interaction energy between unlike monomers, and a comparison with pertinent theoretical predictions is made. A lattice model where polymers are represented as self-avoiding walks on a simple cubic lattice is used to model ‘spinodal decomposition’, i.e. phase separation by ‘uphill diffusion’ in the unstable part of the phase diagram of a polymer mixture. For chain lengths N ≤ 32, the linearized Cahn-like theory…
Kinetics of phase separation in thin films: simulations for the diffusive case.
2005
We study the diffusion-driven kinetics of phase separation of a symmetric binary mixture (AB), confined in a thin-film geometry between two parallel walls. We consider cases where (a) both walls preferentially attract the same component (A), and (b) one wall attracts A and the other wall attracts B (with the same strength). We focus on the interplay of phase separation and wetting at the walls, which is referred to as {\it surface-directed spinodal decomposition} (SDSD). The formation of SDSD waves at the two surfaces, with wave-vectors oriented perpendicular to them, often results in a metastable layered state (also referred to as ``stratified morphology''). This state is reminiscent of th…
Phase behaviour of poly(vinyl methyl ether)-cross-polystyrene semi-interpenetrating networks
1990
Semi-interpenetrating polymer networks of varying composition are prepared by crosslinking polystyrene containing a small number of maleic anhydride groups (4.8 mol% of MA units) with hexamethylene-diamine (HMDA) in the presence of linear poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME). Lightly crosslinked samples are homogeneous at room temperature and show a phase behaviour similar to uncrosslinked blends, i.e. lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behaviour. The influence of crosslinking on the phase behaviour has been studied by small angle light scattering (SALS) and turbidity measurements. The cloud point strongly depends on the heating rate. The presence of the network reduces the stable single…
Self-Assembly of Polymeric Particles in Poiseuille Flow: A Hybrid Lattice Boltzmann/External Potential Dynamics Simulation Study
2017
We present a hybrid simulation method which allows one to study the dynamical evolution of self-assembling (co)polymer solutions in the presence of hydrodynamic interactions. The method combines an established dynamic density functional theory for polymers that accounts for the nonlocal character of chain dynamics at the level of the Rouse model, the external potential dynamics (EPD) model, with an established Navier–Stokes solver, the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. We apply the method to study the self-assembly of nanoparticles and vesicles in two-dimensional copolymer solutions in a typical microchannel Poiseuille flow profile. The simulations start from fully mixed systems which are sudd…
Combined SANS and SAXS experiments in polyolefins-hydrogenated oligocyclopentadiene (HOCP) blends
1998
Abstract Lamellar morphology in semicrystyalline polymer blends (iPP/HOCP and HDPE/HOCP) is investigated by means of Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS). The investigated blends present a complex phase diagram, as they show a miscibility gap. SAXS scattering curves of blends lying outside the miscibility gap can be analysed in the frame of the psuedo two phase model. In order to describe the complex morphology of blends lying inside the miscibility gap, the SANS technique revealed necessary. In this paper a novel method to describe the morphology of these complex systems by means of SANS is presented.