Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, Vol.38, No.10, 1301-1306, 2000
Modeling the effect of compatibilizers in the coarsening of ternary polymer blends with core-shell morphology
Numerical simulations of the phase separation and coarsening of particulate, ternary polymer blends have been performed using a ternary form of the modified Cahn-Hilliard equation. The third component was chosen to be a compatibilizer, typically being a random copolymer of the major components. The results show that compatibilized blends follow the same Lifshitz-Slyozov coarsening law as binary systems. Slower coarsening rates, indicating system stabilization, were observed for blends containing similar to 10% compatibilizer and exhibiting a core-shell morphology. Larger amounts of compatibilizer resulted in significantly higher coarsening rates. This appears to be a result of the greater affinity of the compatibilizer for the major component and warrants further experimental investigation.