Kinetics of nucleation in a dilute polymer solution

To determine the time evolution of the droplet size distribution in the nucleation process, we have made light-scattering measurements on supercooled dilute solutions of poly(methyl methacrylate) in 1-chlorobutane, which showed extremely slow phase separation. The observed scattered intensities were analyzed by the Guinier plot and represented in a scaled form. The time evolution of the mean radius R¯(t), total density N(t), and droplet-size distribution N(R,t) of droplets of minority phase was given by the relations R¯(t)∼t, N(t)∼${\mathit{t}}^{0.6}$, and N(R,t)=N(t)h(R/R¯)/R¯, independent of quench depth and concentration.