REACTING POLYMER BLENDS AS A SOFT MATTER SYSTEM WITH COMPETING INTERACTIONS: MORPHOLOGY AND PHASE SEPARATION KINETICS

摘要

@@1. Introduction: Polymer mixtures undergoing phase separation induced by appropriate chemical reactions such as cross-link can behave like systems with competing interactions [1]. Here, the chemical reactions act as an inhibitor that competes with phase separation behaving as an activator and tend to prevent the mixtures proceed to phase equilibrium. In this talk, we will show that by taking advantages of the coupling between phase separation and the crosslinking reaction, morphology with regularity in the micrometer scales can be generated and controlled efficiently. Finally, as an example for practical applications of these structures, we were successful to generate a continuous phase of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in these binary mixtures by taking advantages of these competing phenomena.