Macromolecules, Vol.50, No.16, 6293-6302, 2017
Viscoelastic and Dynamic Properties of Well-Mixed and Phase-Separated Binary Polymer Blends: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study
The viscoelasticity and dynamic properties of a model dynamically asymmetric binary polymer blend are studied via Molecular,dynamics simulations. The model blend system is made up of two chain types having a large glass transition temperature (T-g) difference and presents two blend morphologies a well-mixed, homogeneous blend and a phase separated blend. These two morphologies represent dynamically coupled and dynamically confined states. The well-Mixed, homogeneous blend exhibited greater storage modultis and slower low-T-g matrix chain dynamics compared to the phase-separated blend The influence of various system parameters, such as high-T-g chain length and (volume) concentration,and shear frequency on various static, dynamic, and viscoelastic properties is investigated to identify the source of the observed stiffening in the well-mixed; homogeneous blends.