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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Morphology Development In Main-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymer Fibers During Solvent Evaporation, Pratyush Dayal, Andrew Guenthner, Thein Kyu
Morphology Development In Main-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymer Fibers During Solvent Evaporation, Pratyush Dayal, Andrew Guenthner, Thein Kyu
Thein Kyu
A nonequilibrium thermodynamic approach has been developed for describing the emergence of fiber morphologies from a liquid crystalline polymer solution undergoing solvent evaporation, including fibrillar structures, concentric rings, and spiral structures. We utilized Matsuyama–Kato free energy for main-chain liquid crystalline polymer (MCLCP) solutions, which is an extension of Maier–Saupe theory for nematic ordering and incorporates a chain-stiffening, combined with Flory-Huggins free energy of mixing. Temporal evolution of the concentration and nematic order parameters pertaining to the above free energy density of liquid crystalline polymer solution was simulated in the context of time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau theory coupled with the solvent evaporation rate …
Phase Equilibria And Phase Separation Dynamics In A Polymer Composite Containing A Main-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymer, Do Kim, Thein Kyu, Takeji Hashimoto
Phase Equilibria And Phase Separation Dynamics In A Polymer Composite Containing A Main-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymer, Do Kim, Thein Kyu, Takeji Hashimoto
Thein Kyu
Various topological phase diagrams of blends of main-chain liquid crystalline polymer (MCLCP) and flexible polymer have been established theoretically in the framework of Matsuyama–Kato theory by combining Flory–Huggins (FH) free energy for isotropic mixing, Maier–Saupe (MS) free energy for nematic ordering in the constituent MCLCP, and free energy pertaining to polymer chain-rigidity. As a scouting study, various phase diagrams of binary flexible polymer blends have been solved self-consistently that reveal a combined lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and upper critical solution temperature (UCST), including an hourglass phase diagram. The calculated phase diagrams exhibit liquidus and solidus lines along with a …