Physics Commons^™

Polymerization-Induced Phase Separation, J.C. Lee

Faculty Publications

A molecular dynamics simulation is performed to study the kinetics of microphase separation in a polymer-dispersed-liquid-crystal forming process. An equimolar mixture of monomers and liquid crystal molecules are thermalized in a well mixed state. The monomers are then polymerized at the same temperature. The end product is a spanning gel with liquid crystal molecules aggregating in droplets here and there. The peak position of the equal-time structure function suggests that the growth of the droplets may be described with t^-0.23. The small growth exponent is just one of several features which may be attributed to the growing elastic …