The morphology and dynamics of polymerization-induced phase separation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how polymerization affects phase separation morphology and dynamics, revealing a reduction in initial length scale due to increasing molecule weight, supported by analytical and numerical results.

Contribution

It introduces a model incorporating reaction kinetics into phase separation dynamics, providing new insights into the early-stage morphology changes during polymerization-induced phase separation.

Findings

Initial length scale decreases in early phase separation

Molecule weight increase causes morphology changes

Numerical results agree with theoretical predictions

Abstract

The morphology and dynamics of polymerization-induced phase separation in the initially homogeneous solution of a non-reactive component in reactive monomers are investigated by incorporating the reaction kinetics into the time-dependent Ginzburg Landau equation. Analytical results show that there is a reduction of the initial length scale in the early stage of phase separation. The reason is the increase of the molecule weight of emerging polymer, independent of the fact whether the system goes through the metastable region or not. The numerical results are in good agreement with theoretical prediction quite well.