Reaction-induced Phase Separation of Thermoset/Thermoplastic Mixtures by Coarse-grained Molecular Dynamics Modeling

Abstract

This proceeding paper reports our recent study on the reaction-induced phase separation during the cure of thermoset/thermoplastic polymer mixtures using coarsegrained molecular dynamics simulations. Chemical reactions during the curing process of the thermoset are explicitly modeled using the MDPoS method extended to a coarse grain description of thermosets. The effects of composition and conversion degree on phase separation domain size growth are investigated. We find that the scaling phenomenon of domain size growth with phase separation time, observed previously in simple liquid mixtures and linear polymers, applies to reaction-induced phase separation, and the power-law exponent of growth rate depends on composition but not on the conversion degree.