Abstract
The phase separation dynamics of a model colloid-polymer mixture is studied by taking explicitly the hydrodynamic interactions caused by the solvent into account. Based on the studies on equilibrium phase behavior we perform a volume quench from the homogeneous region of the phase diagram deep into the region where colloid-rich and polymer-rich phases coexist. We demonstrate that the Multiparticle Collision Dynamics (MPCD) algorithm is well suited to study spinodal decomposition and present first results on the domain growth behavior of colloid-polymer mixtures in quasi two-dimensional confinement. On the one hand side we find that the boundary condition of the solvent with respect to the repulsive walls strongly influences the phase separation dynamics and on the other hand we show that the wetting behavior of the system leads to changes in the demixing pattern morphology over time and hence affects the domain growth laws.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
T. Palberg. Crystallization kinetics of repulsive colloidal spheres. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 11:R323, 1999.
P. N. Pusey. Colloidal suspensions. In J. P. Hansen, D. Levesque, and J. Zinn-Justin, editors, Liquids, freezing, and glass transition, page 763, Amsterdam, 1991. North Holland.
E. Bartsch. Diffusion in concentrated colloidal suspensions and glasses. Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci, 3:577, 1998.
H. Löwen. Colloidal dispersions in external fields: recent developments. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 20:404201, 2008.
New developments in colloid science. MRS Bull. 29 (2004).
K. Binder and D. Stauffer. Theory for slowing down of relaxation and spinodal decomposition of binary-mixtures. Phys. Rev. Lett., 33:1006, 1974.
I.M. Lifshitz and V.V. Slyozov. The kinetics of precipitation from supersaturated solid solutions. J. Phys. Chem. Solids, 19:35, 1961.
Daniel Reith, Katarzyna Bucior, Leonid Yelash, Peter Virnau, and Kurt Binder. Spinodal decomposition of polymer solutions: molecular dynamics simulations of the two-dimensional case. J. Phys.: - Condens. Matter, 24(11):115102, MAR 21 2012.
H. Furukawa. Effect of inertia on droplet growth in a fluid. Phys. Rev. A, 31:1103, 1985.
S.K. Das, J. Horbach, K. Binder, and S. Puri. Molecular dynamics study of phase separation kinetics in thin films. Phys. Rev. Lett., 96:016107, 2006.
Leonid Yelash, Peter Virnau, Wolfgang Paul, Kurt Binder, and Marcus Mueller. Spinodal decomposition of polymer solutions: A parallelized molecular dynamics simulation. Phys. Rev. E, 78(3, Part 1):031801, SEP 2008.
SK Das, S Puri, J Horbach, and K Binder. Spinodal decomposition in thin films: Molecular-dynamics simulations of a binary Lennard-Jones fluid mixture. Phys. Rev. E, 73(3, Part 1):031604, MAR 2006.
Michael J. A. Hore and Mohamed Laradji. Dissipative particle dynamics simulation of the interplay between spinodal decomposition and wetting in thin film binary fluids. J. Chem. Phys., 132(2):024908, JAN 14 2010.
J. Zausch, P. Virnau, J. Horbach, R. L. C. Vink, and K. Binder. Statics and dynamics of colloid-polymer mixtures near their critical point of phase separation: A computer simulation of a continuous AO model. J. Chem. Phys., 130:064906, 2009.
G. Gompper, T. Ihle, K. Kroll, and R.G. Winkler. Multi-particle collision dynamics: A particle-based mesoscale simulation approach to the hydrodynamics of complex fluids. Adv. Poly. Sci., 221:1, 2009.
A. Malevanets and R. Kapral. Mesoscopic model for solvent dynamics. J. Chem. Phys., 110:8605, 1999.
A. Malevanets and R. Kapral. Solute molecular dynamics in a mesoscale solvent. J. Chem. Phys., 112:7260, 2000.
A. Malevanets and J. Yeomans. Dynamics of short polymer chains in solution. EPL, 52:231, 2000.
R. L. C. Vink and J. Horbach. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation of a model colloid-polymer mixture: Coexistence line, critical behavior, and interfacial tension. J. Chem. Phys., 121:3253, 2004.
P. Virnau and M. Müller. Calculation of free energy through successive umbrella sampling. J. Chem. Phys., 120:10925, 2004.
F. Wang and D. P. Landau. Efficient, multiple-range random walk algorithm to calculate the density of states. Phys. Rev. Lett., 86:2050, 2001.
A. Winkler, D. Wilms, P. Virnau, and K. Binder. Capillary condensation in cylindrical pores: Monte Carlo study of the interplay of surface and finite size effects. J. Chem. Phys., 133:164702, 2010.
G. Sutmann, R.G. Winkler, and G. Gompper. Simulating hydrodynamics of complex fluids: Multi-particle collision dynamics coupled to molecular dynamics on massively parallel computers. (in preparation).
A. Winkler, R.G. Winkler, P. Virnau, G. Gompper, and K. Binder. Multiparticle collision dynamics study of hydrodynamic mechanisms of spinodal decomposition in confined colloid-polymer mixtures. (in preparation).
H. Chen and A. Chakrabarti. Hydrodynamic effects on domain growth in off-critical polymer blends. J. Chem. Phys., 108(14):6006–6013, APR 8 1998.
B. Crist. On “pinning” domain growth in two-phase polymer liquids. Macromolecules, 29(22):7276–7279, OCT 21 1996.
J. Lauger, R. Lay, and W. Gronski. The percolation-to-cluster transition during spinodal decomposition of an off-critical polymer mixture - observation by light-scattering and optical microscopy. J. Chem. Phys., 101(8):7181–7184, OCT 15 1994.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the DFG (TR6, A5) for funding of the project. Computing resources used to test the algorithms, obtain first results and the static properties of the continuous AO model at JUROPA supercomputer in Jülich are gratefully acknowledged. Especially acknowledged are G. Gompper, R. Winkler, C. Huang and G. Sutmann for extremely helpful discussions and advices.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Winkler, A., Virnau, P., Binder, K. (2013). Spinodal Decomposition Kinetics of Colloid-Polymer Mixtures Including Hydrodynamic Interactions. In: Nagel, W., Kröner, D., Resch, M. (eds) High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering ‘12. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33374-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33374-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33373-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33374-3
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)