Particulate growth in phase-separated polymer blends

Determination of temperature dependent structure evolution by fast-Fourier transform at late stage spinodal decomposition in bicontinuous biopolymer mixtures

“…This assumption is however only true if the phase volume of the particulate phase is nearly zero. 36 Recent experiments 37 have shown that Brownian drop motion can be active at volume fractions between 0.1 and 0.3. Tanaka 38 has reported some experimental evidence of an attraction between particles in liquid mixtures with phase volumes larger than 0.2.…”

“…This particle interaction is a result of an attractive force produced by the coupling of concentration fields around neighboring particles. 35,36 Furthermore, droplets that have experienced a coalescence event have much higher probability of experiencing another colli- sion. It is unclear whether any of these mechanisms can explain the growth rate in the first part of the experiments however since the microstructure is bicontinuous and the phase volume is close to 0.5.…”

A coalescence mechanism for the coarsening behavior of polymer blends during a quiescent annealing process. II. Polydispersed particle system

“…Brownian motion promotes the touch probability of two particles. Now we know all the parameters needed for solving the population balance equations (eqs [5][6][7][8]. To calculate the change of the number density distribution with time, the initial number density distribution should be known.…”

“…Then, the mass transfer from the small particle to the large particle causes small particles to be smaller and large particles to be larger. The LSW mechanism involves the solution of three equations: 5 (1) a kinetic equation gives the growth rate of an individual particle, (2) a continuity equation controls the particle size distribution, and (3) a conservation equation keeps the quantity of materials in Correspondence to: C. Zhou (E-mail: cxzhou@mail.sjtu. edu.cn) the system constant.…”

Phase structure coarsening in polymer blends: predicted effects of the phase duality interval on selected physical properties

“…Phase structure, which codetermines properties of heterogeneous blends consisting of immiscible or partly miscible polymers, depends on blend composition, relative viscosities of components in the blending process, [1][2][3] interfacial energy, [4][5][6][7] mixing machine and adopted conditions, [8][9][10][11][12][13] annealing, [14][15][16][17] etc. As generally known, the phase structure of polymer blends formed in the mixing process correspond to the (stationary) conditions in the mixing device, but not to a state with the lowest Gibbs energy.…”