Abstract:
We study the early stages of phase separation in a mixture of a polydisperse and a monodisperse polymer within the Cahn-Hilliard framework. We model the polydisperse component using a finite, but arbitrarily large, number of components, and show that the number of components required for convergent behaviour to be achieved is computationally undemanding. We study the growth rate of fluctuations following a quench into the two-phase region of the phase diagram. The q-dependence of the growth rate is shown to be commensurate with the behaviour of a monodisperse-monodisperse mixture, with the major difference being an effective mobility that is dependent on the quench depth. We also study the deviation of the time dependence of the scattering function from single exponential behaviour.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received 29 June 2000 and Received in final form 20 November 2000
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Clarke, N. Early stages of phase separation from polydisperse polymer mixtures. Eur. Phys. J. E 4, 327–336 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s101890170115
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s101890170115