Dynamic approach to phase separation of a mixture of monomers and polymers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We use a dynamic mean-field approximation to study the spinodal decomposition of a mixture of monomers and polymers. The system is modeled on a two-dimensional square lattice. A local mean-field concentration of polymers is employed in local dynamics in which possible switching of monomer and polymer on next-nearest-neighboring sites takes place according to the standard Monte Carlo updating rule. A dynamic equation for the local density is obtained, and spinodal curves are produced analytically for various degrees of polymerization by analyzing the stability of the uniform solution of the equation. We also determine the most unstable mode with respect to the uniform solution.