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Effects of A‐B Block Copolymer Additives on Interfacial Tension of A/B Polymer Blends Near the Critical Temperature: Comparison of Mean‐Field Calculations with Experiments
Author(s) -
Nose Takuhei,
Inomata Katsuhiro,
Morita Hiroshi,
Kawakatsu Toshihiro,
Doi Masao
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3935(20010601)202:9<1548::aid-macp1548>3.0.co;2-8
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , surface tension , polymer , polymer chemistry , polymer blend , thermodynamics , tension (geology) , mean field theory , adsorption , flory–huggins solution theory , composite material , chemistry , physics , condensed matter physics , ultimate tensile strength
A simple square‐gradient theory (SGT) for the interfacial tension of homopolymer‐A/homopolymer‐B blends with A‐B diblock copolymer additives near the critical solution temperature, T c , has been proposed to describe the experimental finding that, as the temperature changes away from T c , the interfacial tension γ increases, and then decreases, exhibiting a maximum. Dynamic mean‐field calculations (DMF) of a self‐consistent field treatment are also performed to describe it and are compared with those of the proposed SGT. Both of SGT and DMF reasonably describe the γ ‐maximum behavior and the additive‐concentration dependence of the location of γ ‐maximum in γ ‐ T relation. Agreements of SGT with DMF results are quite satisfactory, although SGT, in general, gives thinner adsorbed layers of block copolymers than those evaluated by DMF.