Polydisperse polymer fractionation between phases

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: de Souza, J. Pedro, Jacobs, William M., Stone, Howard A.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866914459533967360
author de Souza, J. Pedro
Jacobs, William M.
Stone, Howard A.
author_facet de Souza, J. Pedro
Jacobs, William M.
Stone, Howard A.
contents Polymer mixtures fractionate between phases depending on their molecular weight. Consequently, by varying solvent conditions, a polydisperse polymer sample can be separated between phases so as to achieve a particular molecular weight distribution in each phase. In principle, predictive physics-based theories can help guide separation design and interpret experimental phase-diagram and fractionation measurements. Even so, applying the standard Flory-Huggins model can require numerical computations that hamper the predictions considering the full molecular weight distribution. Here, we apply a recently-derived exact analytical solution of multi-component Flory-Huggins theory for polydisperse homopolymers to understand the principles of polymer fractionation for common molecular weight distributions. Consistent with previous studies, the method highlights the sensitivity of polymer fractionation to the shape, and in particular the tails, of this distribution. Our results provide a systematic approach to evaluate the full molecular weight distribution in phase coexistence calculations over the possible composition space.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_09229
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Polydisperse polymer fractionation between phases
de Souza, J. Pedro
Jacobs, William M.
Stone, Howard A.
Soft Condensed Matter
Polymer mixtures fractionate between phases depending on their molecular weight. Consequently, by varying solvent conditions, a polydisperse polymer sample can be separated between phases so as to achieve a particular molecular weight distribution in each phase. In principle, predictive physics-based theories can help guide separation design and interpret experimental phase-diagram and fractionation measurements. Even so, applying the standard Flory-Huggins model can require numerical computations that hamper the predictions considering the full molecular weight distribution. Here, we apply a recently-derived exact analytical solution of multi-component Flory-Huggins theory for polydisperse homopolymers to understand the principles of polymer fractionation for common molecular weight distributions. Consistent with previous studies, the method highlights the sensitivity of polymer fractionation to the shape, and in particular the tails, of this distribution. Our results provide a systematic approach to evaluate the full molecular weight distribution in phase coexistence calculations over the possible composition space.
title Polydisperse polymer fractionation between phases
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09229