Experimental study of thermal fluctuation in spinodal decomposition of a binary polymer mixture

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Abstract
The kinetics of spinodal decomposition of a binary polymer system of polystyrene/poly(vinylmethylether) near its critical composition has been studied by the temperature jump light scattering technique. The results indicate that the linearized theory of the Cahn–Hilliard–Cook type which includes thermal fluctuation term can describe the polymer system very well in the eary‐time and shallow‐quench region. The virtual structure factor Sx(q), which is a consequence of including the thermal fluctuation, has been obtained for the first time. For experiments of deeper quench, the virtual structure factor becomes small in our experimental q range, and the time dependent static structure factor, S(q,t), reduces back to the original Cahn–Hilliard type.