Polymer Engineering Faculty Research

Title

Phase Diagrams of Binary Crystalline Polymer Blends

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-27-2006

Abstract

A thermodynamically self-consistent theory has been developed to establish binary phase diagrams for two-crystalline polymer blends by taking into consideration all interactions including amorphous-amorphous, crystal-amorphous, amorphous-crystal, and crystal-crystal interactions. The present theory basically involves combination of the Flory-Huggins free energy for amorphous-amorphous isotropic mixing and the Landau free energy of polymer solidification (e.g., crystallization) of the crystalline constituents. The self-consistent solution via minimization of the free energy of the mixture affords determination of eutectic, peritectic, and azeotrope phase diagrams involving various coexistence regions such as liquid-liquid, liquid-solid, and solid-solid coexistence regions bound by liquidus and solidus lines. To validate the present theory, the predicted eutectic phase diagrams have been compared with the reported experimental binary phase diagrams of blends such as polyethylene fractions as well as polycaprolactone/trioxane mixtures.

Publication Title

The Journal of Physical Chemistry B

Volume

110

Issue

32

First Page

16059

Last Page

16065

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