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Binary Interaction Parameters, Ternary Systems: Realistic Modeling of Liquid/Liquid Phase Separation
Author(s) -
Wolf Bernhard A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/mats.200800065
Subject(s) - ternary operation , polymer , thermodynamics , binary number , solvent , ternary numeral system , phase (matter) , phase diagram , flory–huggins solution theory , solvency , statistical physics , materials science , chemistry , chemical physics , physics , computer science , mathematics , organic chemistry , arithmetic , finance , market liquidity , economics , programming language
The phase behavior of ternary systems (either a polymer solution in a mixed solvent or a polymer blend in a single solvent) was modeled theoretically. The modeling considers two specific features of polymers explicitly: chain connectivity and the ability to respond to changes in the molecular environment by conformational reorientation. Previously, this approach has been applied to polymer solutions in single solvents. Here it is generalized and the number of parameters is reduced to two per binary system. The calculation of the Gibbs energies of the ternary mixtures accounts for the composition dependencies of the binary interaction parameters. The following phenomena are reproduced realistically for polymer solutions in a mixed solvent and for solutions of two polymers in a common solvent: simplicity, co‐solvency, and co‐non‐solvency. The results nourish the hope that the new approach is capable of modeling phase diagrams for ternary systems by means of binary interaction parameters only.