Fractal Characteristics of Phase Separation Morphology

Phase separation in the polymer systems is a very common process in production and processing of the polymeric materials. The morphology of the phase separated system is a key understanding factor which affects the properties and applications. The two most commons observed morphologies are droplet- and rod-like morphologies in which the equilibrium phases are appeared in droplet shape and rod-shape entities respectively. The morphology at the late stages of the phase separation or at the equilibrium stages seem to be a fractal like structure in which the different parameters such as concentration, temperature, and correlation length determine the fractal characteristics. In this work we study the morphology of the late stages of phase separation of a polymer-polymer blend by determining the fractal dimension of a 2D morphology. The effects of operation variables such as temperature and concentration quench depth, and the physical properties polymer system on the fractal characteristics of the system has been studied. It has been observe d that the fractal dimension varies from 1.2-1.8 for morphologies from droplets to rod shape

کلیدواژه ها:

Phase Separation Morphology ، Fractal dimension ، rod and droplet shape