Effects of Repulsion Parameter and Chain Length of Homopolymers on Interfacial Properties of An/Ax/2BxAx/2/Bm Blends: A DPD Simulation Study.

ABSTRACT: We explored the effects of the repulsion parameter (aAB) and chain length (NHA or NHB) of homopolymers on the interfacial properties of An/Ax/2BxAx/2/Bm ternary polymeric blends using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. Our simulations show that: (i) The ternary blends exhibit the significant segregation at the repulsion parameter (aAB = 40). (ii) Both the interfacial tension and the density of triblock copolymer at the center of the interface increase to a plateau with increasing the homopolymer chain length, which indicates that the triblock copolymers with shorter chain length exhibit better performance as the compatibilizers for stabilizing the blends. (iii) For the case of NHA = 4 (chain length of homopolymers An) and NHB (chain length of homopolymers Bm) ranging from 16

SUBMITTER: Liu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8309644 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature