Networklike Pattern Formation in Phase Separating Polymer Solutions: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Aniket Bhattacharya, S. D. Mahanti, and Amitabha Chakrabarti
Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 333 – Published 12 January 1998
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Abstract

The dynamics of phase separation of a quenched polymer solution is studied using a stochastic molecular dynamics simulation. At early times, the elastic nature of the polymer chains generates a networklike domain morphology for sufficiently dense polymer solutions. However, at late times, this network structure breaks up into disconnected polymer-rich domains to minimize the interfacial energy. Our simulations explain why different experiments carried out to different time regimes seem to produce contradictory results, and strongly indicate that the true late-time growth kinetics of quenched polymer solutions belong to the same universality class of small molecular mixtures.

  • Received 11 August 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.333

©1998 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Aniket Bhattacharya1, S. D. Mahanti1, and Amitabha Chakrabarti2

  • 1Department of Physics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1116
  • 2Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506-2601

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Vol. 80, Iss. 2 — 12 January 1998

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