Phase separation with multiple length scales in polymer mixtures induced by autocatalytic reactions

摘要

A ternary polymer blend with two components photo-cross-linked independently in its miscible region undergoes phase separation, exhibiting morphology with multiple length scales. Contrary to the case of thermally induced phase separation, the morphology exhibits a unimodal-multimodal transition. It is shown that these multiple length scales are caused by the inhomogeneous freezing kinetics of the cross-linking process. This inhomogeneity arises from the autocatalytic feedback driven by the couplings between concentration fluctuations and the photo-cross-linking reactions. [S1063-651X(99)50308-5]. [References: 17]