The Effect of Monomer Sequence Distributions in Copolymers: Phase Behavior and Interfacial Properties

9307993 Winey粘合剂、光致抗蚀剂、抗冲击改性剂、包装材料和乳化剂属于共聚物的工业用途。共聚物包含两种或两种以上类型的单体单元，在单个聚合物链中彼此共价键合。共聚物的不同单体单元可以按各种顺序排列，例如随机、交替和嵌段。传统上，研究人员假设序列分布不影响宏观性质，除非在测序差异非常大的情况下，例如随机和嵌段共聚物。然而，一些研究，包括作者的工作，已经证明序列分布的微小差异对共混物的相容性有很大影响。考虑到这些意想不到的结果，将对序列分布对热力学和机械性能的影响进行彻底的调查。相关的主题是共聚物/均聚物/均聚物共混物中的相行为以及限制在不相容相间的共聚物的界面性质。共混物的相容性和界面断裂韧性将主要作为共聚物序列分布的函数进行研究，但相互作用参数和相对分子质量也将受到相当大的关注。共聚物中的序列分布将被探索为一种通过改变分子结构来有效地调整性能的新方法。***

9307993 Winey Adhesives, photoresists, impact modifiers, packaging materials, and emulsifying agents are among the industrial uses of copolymers. Copolymers contain two or more types of monomer units covalently bonded to one another in a single polymer chain. The different monomer units of the copolymer can be arranged in a variety of sequences, for example, random, alternating, and block. Traditionally, researchers have assumed that the sequence distribution does not influence macroscopic properties, except in the case of very large sequencing differences, for example random versus block copolymers. However, a few studies, including work by the authors, have demonstrated that small differences in the sequence distribution dramatically influence blend miscibility. Given these unexpected results, a thorough investigation of the effect of sequence distribution on thermodynamics and mechanical properties will be carried out. The pertinent topics are the phase behavior in copolymer/homopolymer/homopolymer blends and the interfacial properties of copolymer confined between immiscible phases. Both blend miscibility and interfacial fracture toughness will be studied primarily as a function of the sequence distribution of the copolymer, though considerable attention will also be given to the interaction parameter and molecular weights. The sequence distribution in copolymers will be explored as a new means of effectively tailoring properties by varying the molecular structure. ***