Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.105, No.22, 10134-10144, 1996
Mean-Field Theory of the Interface Between a Homopolymer and a Binary-Polymer Mixture
In this paper we investigate the properties of the interface between a homopolymer (A) and a binary polymer mixture (B:C). We have extended the self-consistent field (SCF) model of Helfand [Macromolecules 25, 1676 (1992)] by including the effects of the numbers of segments of polymers on the polymer volume fractions, the interfacial excess of B, (-*)(similar to B), the interfacial tension, gamma(ABC), the interfacial width, w(ABC), and the A-B interfacial overlap, w(AB). Other parameters include the polymer interaction parameters, chi(AB), chi(AC), and chi(BC), and the B volume fraction in the B:C mixture, phi(B infinity). As expected, the B component segregates to the A/B:C interface when A-B interactions are more favorable than the A-C ones (chi(AB)