Dynamical Properties of Polymers: Computational Modeling

Abstract

The free volume distribution has been a qualitatively useful concept by which dynamical properties of polymers, such as the penetrant diffusion constant, viscosity, and glass transition temperature, could be correlated with static properties. In an effort to put this on a more quantitative footing, we define the free volume distribution as the probability of finding a spherical cavity of radius R in a polymer liquid. This is identical to the insertion probability in scaled particle theory, and is related to the chemical potential of hard spheres of radius R in a polymer in the Henry's law limit. We used the Polymer Reference Interaction Site Model (PRISM) theory to compute the free volume distribution of semiflexible polymer melts as a function of chain stiffness. Good agreement was found with the corresponding free volume distributions obtained from MD simulations. Surprisingly, the free volume distribution was insensitive to the chain stiffness, even though the single chain structure and the intermolecular pair correlation functions showed a strong dependence on chain stiffness. We also calculated the free volume distributions of polyisobutylene (PIB) and polyethylene (PE) at 298K and at elevated temperatures from PRISM theory. We found that PIB has more of its free volume distributedmore » in smaller size cavities than for PE at the same temperature.« less